Mass Hollywood Effects
by Golden Gecko
Summary: All your favorite movies and some you didn't even know existed get the Mass Effect treatment. From B-rated horror to summer blockbusters. Some starring your favorite characters from the ME universe to complete OCs. All copyrights, except for the OCs, go to their respective owners. This is made for entertainment purposes only.
1. Ineffective

**Ineffective**

**Inspired By: **Unbreakable  
**Starring:** OCs  
**Chapters: **1

* * *

**(A/N: Reviews are always more than welcomed. The first of three that had been released as single, stand alone works. Brought to one place for you guys to enjoy. Many, many more are to come.**

* * *

The middle-aged turian stood amidst a large group of residents in a mall on the Citadel. A dark green cloak over him covering his face. A cloak he had used many times over to identify him as a security guard at one of the ward's stadiums. Dark-green paint on his face as he looked out from the hood. The hood he wore hid the fact that his three horns on his head were broken off from his days at C-Sec. He looked around with intense, small eyes. Squinting, looking for something he yet didn't understand.

He outstretched his hands and walked down the steps keeping his eyes transfixed on the wall ahead. He looked at nobody as his bare hands gently glided off people leaving and entering the mall joining and separating from the cluster of Citadel citizens. As his hands extended out, he was assaulted by flashes of those people. All of them were happy couples exiting the mall. One asari that passed by him was planning to steal the money of the human female she was with. One human man passed by with three or four quarian children. He caught an image behind his eyes of the man training the children to make mass accelerator blocks for guns. Child labor. Sick, but not a crime on the Citadel if the paperwork was right. The turian was looking for the worst of the worst tonight.

Proceeding through the mall like a specter, he kept his hands out as he passed by a family of humans. Two little girls and a boy. The dad and mom were preoccupied with looking at a few shopping catalogues. The boy was playing with a bouncing ball and couldn't have been more than the age of 4. He bounced the ball playfully and the turian gave them a small yet hard smile. It made him think of his own little son. A little older than the human boy but only by a few years.

Bouncing out of the boy's hands, the ball bounced right in front of the turian and he stopped it. The human boy ran up to the ball and looked at the turian very frightfully. Seeing the three-fingered hand grasping his ball and then looking at the cloaked turian. The turian picked up the ball with one hand and faintly smiled at the child giving him the ball back. The boy took it hesitantly, barely whispering, "Thank you."

The mother then saw the scene and dragged the boy away in fear of the turian, scolding the kid. The turian whispered back to the boy, him not being able to hear it, "You're welcome, kid." He had a family of his own and began to wonder what he was doing here neglecting them.

Walking solemnly through the mall, he was ready to turn back when he lightly bumped into a passerby. Another turian in orange and white. He stopped. Standing in the center of the crowded mall he concentrated on the touch of the other turian. It was sickening to him. Like the touch of dead flesh. Mushy, cold, and sickly. Turning with his eyes locked on the back of the orange-dressed turian. Images flashed in his mind of an apartment in the residential district of the ward. The human family he had seen earlier. He saw the two little girls mutilated in their beds. Their red blood soaking their pink-painted room. Their mother was in the doorway to their room crying as she was dragged away by the orange and white dressed turian. Dragging her into the bathroom to have his way with her. That was this sick turian's main goal. After he was done with her, the murderous turian passed by the father on the floor with his throat cut and his belly open.

The green cloaked turian turned and began to follow the orange-clad turian as more images flooded the back of his mind. The small boy he had seen earlier was hiding in a closet. He tried so hard to hide his whimpering but the orange-dressed turian found him. He dragged him out of his hiding spot crying and screaming. He raised the frighten child by the throat and then, with a dagger about the size of the boy's leg soaked in the blood of his family, drove it into the child's abdomen more times then the broken-horned turian cared to count.

The family exited the mall laughing and having a happy time. The killer turian walked out right behind them. Behind him came the dark green turian watching the killer like a hawk while he watched the family. The family got into a taxi while the killer got into a vehicle all his own. Wiping his nose and licking his mandibles, he enter a truck and followed the cab.

Walking to the edge of the building, the seemingly faceless, hero turian looked down and saw the several hundred foot drop. He took a couple of steps back and watched the truck nearly fly out of sight. He shook his shoulders and let out a long breath. "Lets see if this really works."

He reached out and grabbed a hold of a flying car digging his fingers right into the metal. He tore the locked door open and dragged the car over to safety. An asari and human woman got out half-naked as he got in. He then pointed to the asari, saying, "She's planning on stealing your chit, by the way." Not even waiting to hover over the sky, he took off barely being able to see the truck. He stuck with it though learning tracking skills from C-Sec.

He hoped he wouldn't have to deal with them too soon. A stolen vehicle in this part of the wards was common. It would take them five or eight minutes to get to the mall and probably another twenty to figure out where he was going.

The truck turned a few corners and then stopped right at an apartment building. The cloaked turian stopped the car a few spaces behind the truck. He got out and looked around. Not knowing which apartment it was as he entered the building, standing in the open doorframe.

Looking at his bare hands, he began touching doors seeing things he didn't really want to see. He came to a door marked with a four digit number. He looked down and saw the keycard panel had been demolished. Touching the door, he saw all the horrible sights he had seen earlier. Backing up, he kicked down the door as a krogan with an asari wrapped around his neck came out with a handgun saying drunkenly, "Hey! What the fuck's with the racket?"

Turning his head slowly, he asked the krogan, "That's a very nice gun. Cannifax? This year's model?"

The krogan looked at the gun nearly putting the barrel to his head, "Yeah? Yeah!"

"Good thing for me the safety's on."

The krogan refocused the gun, laughing as he did. "What'd you mean the safety's on?"

"Well, you got to push the little red button in the back."

Looking all over the gun having no idea how to use it, the krogan found the red button and pressed it. "Alright! Now what is with the racket?!" He said, trying to shoot off a round in the turian's leg but the trigger was locked and wouldn't budge more than a few millimeters.

The cloaked turian knocked the gun out of his hand expertly and grabbed the krogan by the throat nearly hauling the big sapient specimen off his feet. "Now, that's a very dangerous weapon you had there. Maybe you should let me hang on to it?"

Choking, the krogan barely uttered out, "That's okay."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Its fine. I don't need it!"

Hauling him back into his own apartment, the hero turian saw the cowering asari girl and said, "That's a very lovely asari."

A gag came from the krogan as he choked out, "You like her? Oh man!" More pressure being applied to his thick throat. His muscles like jelly in the turian's titanium-like grasp.

He then let go of him and walked out of the apartment. He picked up the gun and held it like he had held so many pistols before.

Entering the apartment, he rushed over to the closet and opened the doors. He saw the small boy hiding in the closet and put the gun away. Kneeling, he put out his hand at the terrified little tyke. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."

The small boy waddled out, saying to him, "You're the alien who caught my ball."

"That's right." He said, as he carefully took the boy's hand. He then asked carefully, "Where is he?"

The boy looked at him funny and then pointed upstairs.

"Okay. You stay down here and don't move."

"Okay." the little human boy said as he went back in the closet and hid again.

Taking out the gun, the hero slowly went upstairs passing by the dead father on the floor. Brandishing the handgun, looking around the corner, he saw the mother weeping in a doorway. Next, he saw the turian with his large knife drag her into the bathroom. He dared not to go through the doorframe she was weeping at knowing what was beyond. Seeing it all before. Slipping next to the bathroom door he held his handgun firm.

He almost went in when the killer came out. Nearly having the door slammed in his face, the hero stayed hidden from the orange dressed murder. He slipped inside and saw the mother was still alive. She was handcuffed to the shower head. Going in carefully he saw that she was out cold. Grabbing the handcuffs, breaking them easily, the hero lowered her down into the tub being careful not to touch anything too private of hers since she was stripped naked.

Exiting the bathroom he headed back downstairs with the gun at his side. Turning the corner, he saw the boy was nowhere in the closet. The doors were just hanging wide open but the boy was gone.

Suddenly, he was tackled into the side wall and made a man-sized imprint. He looked down and saw the orange-dressed turian. He was being stabbed repeatedly with the knife and then the gun was cut out of his hand. There was no pain as the gun fell to the floor and the killer kicked it out into the hallway. All the while he continued stabbing the cloaked turian until letting go, asking him, "Who the hell are you?!"

The hero had not a knife wound on him. Even though he had been stabbed more times than he could count, there was not one trickle of blood or gash in him. He had not been harmed in anyway. He stood as if a gentle breeze had hit him and asked, "Where's the boy?"

The homicidal turian looked at his long dagger and saw a clean blade with a semi-bent tip. He looked back at the hero, asking this time, "What the hell are you?!"

"I'm just a security guard." He charged the killer but he side-stepped the hero and grabbed him by the cloak. He flung him into a coffee table being extremely powerful. Getting up without a scratch, the hero asked, "Where's the boy?"

A swift punch to his mandibles and then three more as the homicidal turian grabbed him and flung him into the wall. He began punching him multiple times in the stomach but all he succeeded in doing was blooding his knuckles.

The hero slammed the killer's back with his hands clasped together and the killer backed off. Charging again, the hero slammed the killer into an entertainment set and broke plenty of appliances in the process. Glass and technical equipment laid at his feet as he stood over the wounded killer. "Where is the boy?"

The killer was reluctant to get up but slowly rose and when he was to his feet, the knife was still in his hand. He slashed out against the hero but all that did was make his head snap. The seemingly faceless turian grabbed the dagger and knocked it out of the killer's hands. Then, wrapping his arm around the killer's neck, the hero tugged back choking the life right out of him. The killer grabbed his arm and slung him into another wall while he was still on his back but the hero hung on. Again and again the killer ran backwards into furniture and walls to get the other strong turian off of him. Leaving large holes and broken pieces of furniture everywhere. Nothing stopped the hooded turian from choking the very life out of the other.

Slowing down, the killer was running out of gas as he struggled to be released. He fell to the floor in a pile as he clawed at the hero's arm. He tried to beg for his life and pleaded that he was sorry but he was too out of breath to utter a word. He began to cry as light and color faded from his eyesight. Beginning to gasp for breath like an animal coiled up in an anaconda's vice, fighting just to stay awake now, he drifted off never to wake up again.

When the hero was sure of this he let go of his prey and got up feeling exhilarated. He looked around spotting a wet trail into the kitchen. He followed it and found the boy hiding in a cabinet underneath the sink. The boy was tied up with strong hosing of some kind which the hero ripped off of him easily and the boy hugged him for it. The hornless turian returned his embrace and said, "It's okay, you're alright. You're safe now."

Gunshots made the hero snap back to reality as he had been shot in the back eight times. He then heard the clicking of the overheated gun and stood up with the boy in his arms as the mother was standing in front of him, clicking off dry shots.

The hero put the boy down and he ran up to his naked mother hugging her.

Smoke flowed off the turian's back from the shots. He was unharmed.

C-Sec had finally arrived and told the cloaked turian to freeze. He didn't listen as he jumped out of a back window and C-Sec combed the parking skyway and the bottom streets for a body but found nothing. What they did find they couldn't explain. An impact hole where the hero's body should have been but there was just the indent and a few cracks. Most were restless for days about the weird incident.

The mother was fine except for a little bit of shock and the boy was slightly dehydrated. The both of them were fine. It was all over the Extranet the next morning of what the hero had done. It was also seen by a little turian boy who was the only one who knew his father's truth.


	2. Tears Of Xpesilix

**Tears Of Xpesilix**

**Inspired by:** Tears Of The Sun  
**Starring:** OCs  
**Chapters:** 1  
**Rated: **M

* * *

**(A/N: One of Bruce Willis best movies outside the Die Hard series of course. If you have never seen it I hope this gives you some initiative to!**

* * *

The waters of Xpesilix were quiet. Darkness of night making them appear blacker than oil and more reflective than glass. Small lights reflected on the water looking like stars in the night sky. All of the lights from the littered buildings that made up Xpesilix. A small colony on a secret garden planet in the Silean Nebula. Alien sounds came from the jungle surrounding the colony as one of the brightest lights shinned out from the medical building.

Inside was an asari doctor working on a small, human boy. She cursed as she reached out to her assistant for a medical tool. "Omni-clamp, now!"

Her assistant was a vorcha wearing medical scrubs. He looked at the medical tools on the table and then said with a loud hiss, "Dr. T'Cornia, Medi-gel would be better option for boy."

Dr. T'Cornia turned to her assistant with an evil look in her eyes, "It would be if his arteries hadn't been cut and he wasn't dying from infection and blood loss!"

A small girl vorcha sat on the bench in the medical facility as the doctor tried to reattach the severed arteries on the human boy. The girl vorcha looked at her clawed hand still with the boy's blood on it saying to the doctor, "I Didn't mean to! We were just playing!"

Dr. T'Cornia looked at the small vorcha girl noticing her more pleasant features than her male counterparts. Her face was far more delicate to look at. Slightly more triangular with her eyes being more folded against her head. They were filled with sadness as she felt sorry for what she had done. She wore a tattered pink dress that went down to her ankles. She rocked her legs back-and-forth being worried about her human friend.

The doctor said to the small girl, "Honey, its okay. I know you didn't mean to and he knows too. You should leave." T'Cornia went back to work trying to reattach several of the arteries.

The small girl vorcha jumped from the bench with vigor, "No! I want to be here!"

Not having time to argue with the vorcha child, T'Cornia yelled out again, "Where is that Omni-clamp?!"

Her assistant grabbed a hold of a disc-like, orange Omni-tool. He handed it to T'Cornia as she quickly placed it on the wound. She then asked for, "25ccs of Tenadixterin!"

Again, the assistant gave a grumble but loaded a needle with the medicine and handed it over. She plunged the needle into the Omni-clamp letting it mix with the machine letting it do most of the work. The white medicinal liquid flowed through the omni-clamp as the arteries were closed back up and the liquid faintly streamed through the boy disinfecting the wound.

Exhausted mostly from lack of sleep and mental strain, T'Cornia removed her medical mask and took a break of relieve. She walked over to the sink and removed her gloves, washing her hands, saying to her assistant, "Now you can use Medi-gel. Close back up the wound and let him rest."

Her assistant had the gel from the medical locker, "You should get some sleep. Boy will be fine."

She nodded her head drying her hands. Heading out of the medical building, she looked back at the small vorcha girl putting a hand on her shoulder, "He'll be alright."

The girl smiled a toothy grin at the doctor, "I stay. Make sure he gets good sleep."

Smiling back, T'Cornia left the small building and sat at a small table that looked out into the forest. She laid her head down on top of her crossed arms blinking her tired eyes. Her whole body ached as her blue skin was pale from how hard she had been working. It seemed like anytime the human children came in contact with the vorcha children, which was everyday, they got sick or were hurt in someway. This incident being the worse of it.

This experiment had to work. She was passionate about improving alien relations with the vorcha. This was the best way to do it. Future generations interacting with each other. She wasn't so sure about the parents making friends with each other but the children were getting along quite nicely. That was what really mattered to her. The children. She closed her eyes letting sleep over take her as she calmly relaxed seeing ripples in the waters next to Xpesilix.

The water began to bubble quietly as five shadows emerged. Their silence was unmatched as they slowly came out of the water and onto dry land. Stepping onto the grass of the garden planet, they stayed crouched but moved fast for bipedal creatures. Two in front, three in back. Military precision of group maneuvering. Well-trained and honed to a razor's edge. The five gathering at a location just ten feet outside Xpesilix. Wearing camo armor each one had high-grade weapons and equipment. Three of them were on their guard as the other two took a knee next to each other.

They all removed their breathing masks not needing them to stay undetected underwater anymore. The commander was the first to take a breath of the world's air. A turian with black markings on his face. Hard, cobalt-blue eyes scanning Xpesilix. They were small for a turian but held decades of conflict and experience in war and death. His most disguisable feature was that all three of his protruding horns on his head were gone. Broken and forgotten a long time ago on a past battlefield. He was down on one knee next to another turian.

This turian was slightly smaller and had chalky white marking on his face. He brought up his omni-tool being the first to speak. "Commander, the HVT (high value target) is 50 feet from our local. Scans show no hostiles in the local vicinity."

The commander looked at his comrade's Omni-tool. "Good." He looked at the others. "Scout out the colony. I want in-and-out."

The other soldiers began to spread out when the commander grabbed a hold of one of them. A human man. He was barely in his twenties being an exchange from the N7 program. He had short cropped blonde hair with green eyes. He had a Viper sniper rifle on his back and a Phalanx at his side. Staring at the commander intensely he patiently awaited orders.

"Not you." The commander said. "Find a good position over the colony. I want all of our backs covered by you."

The young blonde just nodded his head, "Sir." He then took off looking for a good point to scope the colony from.

Watching the soldiers take off quickly and quietly, the commander and the Omni-tool wielding turian both stayed close to each other. They snuck past the buildings nearly being spotted by a small vorcha girl as they crossed by the medical facility.

Moving quietly the other turians proceed to a few of the surrounding buildings pressing themselves against the outer walls. They covered the commander.

The blonde human found a nice outcropping above Xpesilix. Removing the Viper from his back he pushed aside some of the local wildlife with the barrel of the gun. They remind him of rats except lizard-like and a bit more aggressive. Still, they ran off when pushed away as he looked down the scope of his gun. He had a good scan of Xpesilix as he caught sight of all his turian counterparts. Making mental notes of their locations he landed his crosshair on his commander. Seeing both him, the other turian, and the HVT. That was where he rested his sights taking in a long breath.

Approaching the bench with the sleeping doctor, the commander motioned the other into hiding. Obeying the silent order he slipped into hiding becoming unseen in the overgrowth of plant life.

Taking careful steps, the commander slipped behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. She twitched a bit but stayed a sleep. Taking a long exhale of frustration knowing what he had to do. The commander then slid one finger down the long of her back nearly reaching the apex of her crack. Not something he wanted to do.

Awaking suddenly at the cold feel of something getting close to her anal cavity, T'Cornia launched from the bench turning around saying, "What the…"

She barely got that out as a hand wrapped around her mouth and a firm arm grasped her mid-rift. She struggled and nearly let out a biotic wave but heard a voice entered her ear. A turian with gruffness trying to be gentle, "Shhh! I'm not going to hurt you. Hierarchy black ops. Understand?!"

T'Cornia calmed a bit as she relaxed and set her feet back on the ground having them dragged up by the strong turian she was now in the clutches of.

The commander asked again, "Understand?"

Breathing heavily she nodded her head.

"Now, I'm going to let you go. If you go running I will have no choice but to incapacitate you, understand?"

Not knowing what to do, T'Cornia shook her head again. She couldn't help though being a bit thrilled by this alien male specimen. She was deriving a slight bit of pleasure from it. It was in her asari nature to do so.

The commander let her go and she whipped around quickly to look at the turian. She noticed right away his small but firm eyes. They seemed to be squinting constantly. She also noticed his head horns were gone and felt a little sad about it. She pushed that aside though to ask, "Who are you?"

"Commander Jairus McKanius. My orders are to evacuate you ASAP."

T'Cornia gave him a sideways glance, "Why?"

Jairus approached her with a twitch of his mandibles trying to hold back his restraint to leave right that very second. "Because by dawn, this planet will be crawling with over five-thousand vorcha troops that want you're little secret project to fail and they know you are the key. They will kill you and every last living thing on two legs in this colony."

She collapsed down on the bench from the news overwhelming her, saying to herself, "I knew that most of the clans on Heshtok were against this but - this?! We have women and children here!"

Standing over her like an armored sentinel, Jairus said monotonous, "I am unaware of that. My orders are very clear that you, and only you, are to be evacuated. Now - please - doctor, we don't have much time till sunrise. Pack what little you can carry and come with us."

T'Cornia looked at her supposed savior as he reached an open hand out to her. She slapped it away with tears in her eyes, "Did you not just hear me? We have children here! I can't just leave them. You have to take them with us. The whole colony!"

Folding back his hand Jairus said in that gruff, uncaring tone, "Doctor, my orders do not clear transportation of nonessential personnel."

Standing back up T'Cornia said with vigor and strength, looking up at the commander, "Then I'm not leaving!"

Jairus let out a breath of aggravation. He thought about using his Phaeston on his back to knock her over the back of the head but he knew better. He had face down enough asari commandos to know that biotic barriers were natural instinct when being attacked up front. They were taught basic biotic defense from the time they were three. He would just wind up on his ass.

Thinking for a minute, Jairus wound his finger in the air bring his medical officer out of the hidden brush. He looked at him asking, "Can you get the Higner on the line?"

The turian doc looked up to the starry sky as sunlight was starting to cancel out the darkness and wipe out the stars. "I think so." Believing the ship they had landed from was just enough in range for communication.

Nodding, Jairus said to Dr. T'Cornia, "Doctor, we are leaving soon. Make whatever preparations you think are necessary."

T'Cornia took off to wake the rest of Xpesilix. She started with the medical building telling the small girl vorcha to go to her living quarters and pack her things. She listened and ran off. To her assistant she said to pack light because he was going to have to carry the boy. Also, to bring plenty of Medi-gel to take care of the boy.

Jairus watched his own doctor remove a large, grey box off his back and extended a single clamp to the ground for the foldout device to balance on. While his med/tech officer was busy setting up the FTL communicator, Jairus talked into his team com. "Full squad - on me."

Two, large turians hiding within the colony were confused but they obeyed. The blonde human lifted his sniper rifle and put it back on his back. He came down from his vantage point and joined the others.

The first turian soldier to comment on the situation was the doc. As he set up the portable FTL communications array he looked at Jairus with speculation deep in his eyes as his mandibles twitched nonstop as he spoke. "What the hell is going on, commander?"

Jairus gave him an annoyed look with tired eyes. He grunted as he said, "She doesn't want to leave without the colony."

The other two turians, who were both over seven feet tall and were the heavy gunners of the group, looked at Jairus with anger. The first one, with two Mattlock battle rifles said, "That's nuts!"

The other with a black Revenant and a grenade launcher on his back agreed.

The doc pulled apart two grips on each side of the grey box and opened the face revealing a small screen. He activated his Omni-tool and spoke into it. "Higner this is Black Crusader team - do you copy?"

The blonde sniper came up to Jairus, asking reluctantly, "Sir, if I may speak freely?"

With a pat on the human's shoulder, "You're part of the team, Private. Please do so."

Again, the sniper was a little reluctant with his statement but he exhaled and spoke. "We only have two shuttles. We can't haul all these people. We won't have enough space."

Giving the human sniper a sideways glance, Jairus said quickly, "Don't you think I know that." He then walked away going back to the doc asking, "Anything?"

The white-faced turian pointed to the screen as a turian appeared on it. A pompous sort who was the admiral. Looking straight head seemingly cold and unfeeling. The turian admiral said with a straight forward demeanor, "Report."

Jairus rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah sir, we got a problem here."

"Have you found the doctor?"

Looking at her exiting the medical building with her vorcha assistant carrying a human boy, Jairus said, "Yeah, but she's not coming without the entire colony tagging along behind her."

Shaking his head the admiral said, "Unacceptable."

"Understood sir." Jairus said regrettably. Going to turn, the admiral grabbed his attention.

"Before you go commander, these images were taken from other colonies on other worlds with the same secret program. You may want to have a look."

Downloading the images to his Omni-tool, Jairus asked, "Anything else, sir?"

"Just make sure you're out of there soon. Enemy force have already begun to land. You have about an hour or so left."

"Copy that." Jairus said as he watched the screen go black turning around to look at the fading night sky. The sun was rising just over his shoulder. He could see bright, white lights in the sky. They looked like weak falling stars but he knew what they really were.

The blonde human approached him asking, "What are those?"

Looking at the horizon with those intense eyes of his, Jairus said, "Ships. Probably Blood Pack shuttles."

The doc was folding the communication equipment back into a box on his back when he asked, grunting with the stand, "How many?"

Jairus took a strong sniff of the air, "A lot of them."

Dr. T'Cornia returned with all of Xpesilix behind her. Most of them had what they could carry over long distance. Jairus pushed past his men and looked at the group. He saw families. At least ten or so of them. More vorcha than humans. He looked over at the doctor's assistant who was still carrying the wounded, human boy. A small vorcha girl was next to the boy seemingly petting him with sad, red eyes.

Holding his Phaeston, Jairus said to the colony, "Alright. Let's get moving." He pointed to his men. "Do everything they tell you to. They tell you to drop something - do it. They tell you to haul ass - you'd better well do it if you don't want to lose it. Clear?"

Walking up to him, T'Cornia said with power and knowledge in her eyes, "These people know what to do. They will listen."

Cranking his neck subtlety, Jairus said, "They'd better doctor."

The group along with the five soldiers left the colony and walked into the wilderness. Dr. T'Cornia and Jairus were in back of the colony as they trudged along. Xpesilix's people marching at a slow pace with a guard on either side.

They traveled very slowly as Jairus helped a few of the civilians up a rough rock face. T'Cornia was last as the two made it up easily.

Once Jairus joined backup, T'Cornia asked, "So, who sent you?"

Jairus, not even looking at the doctor, simply said, "In short, your people contacted my people. Said a matriarch's daughter was in some kind of trouble. Gave the Hierarchy a file and they sent us in."

T'Cornia looked down at the ground as she walked. She was thinking and in seconds she asked, "Was it matriarch Ultania?"

Looking at her knowing she was right, Jairus said in that robotic tone, "I cannot confirm nor deny that."

She smiled nodding her head. "Thank you for taking my people." She said after a long silence.

Passing by a huge tree with limbs all down its trunk, Jairus ducked under one not saying a word. He didn't know what to say. They had no room for all these people in their two shuttles. They had to get the doctor on one of the shuttles somehow.

They entered a huge clearing and the group saw the shuttles. They began running towards the shuttles as did the doctor. She then stopped seeing there was only two of them. She looked around as Jairus's company stopped the running civilians. Parents held onto their kids and the doctor's assistant knelt with the boy knowing what was going on.

Jairus then grabbed the doctor by the arm and began to haul her over to one of the shuttles. She struggled having a light blue glow emanate off of her. She looked at the commander saying, "You bastard! You lied to me! What about my people?! They'll die here!"

Again, with that emotionless demeanor to his voice, "Nonessential personnel are not my problem doctor."

She jerked away with a small biotic kick. She looked at him in anger, "I'm not going anywhere without my people!"

The sniper came up behind her and asked, "Ma'am?"

She turned around and he snapped out this small, cylindrical, metal object. A yellow flash came from it knocking out the doctor. She got dizzy and fell unconscious. Jairus caught her and hauled her to the shuttle. Speaking to the rest of his team heading to the shuttle with the sniper and the doctor slung over his shoulder, "Let's go!"

The perimeter that the men had formed broke as they rushed to the shuttles. They closed the doors on the people and then Jairus ordered the pilots of the shuttles, "Let's get out of here!" A little emotion escaping from his voice. An emotion that he hadn't felt for awhile since lying to T'Cornia. Anguish.

He saw the people through a window on the side of the shuttle. Mothers were holding onto their babies and tears flowed from their eyes. He had never seen vorcha cry before. The humans were looking around like lost animals while the little vorcha girl wrapped her arms around the wounded human boy. Even though he was still out, she rocked with him crying. Like a child with a stuffed animal.

Letting out a sigh, Jairus watched as the shuttles lifted off the ground with him, the doctor, and his team. Watching the people disappear underneath him.

The doctor was slowly coming to as she blinked still being out of it. She shook her head and looked out the window. The shuttle was slowly approaching the atmosphere and she watched the last of her people disappear underneath the clouds. Looking at Jairus angrily she thought about tearing the shuttle apart with her biotics. She thought about going for his gun. She thought about anything to make the shuttle stop. Shaking her head she just watched the clouds cover her people as if a curtain was being pulled over them. One that she could never pull back again.

Jairus looked away from T'Cornia. He activated his omni-tool and loaded up the pictures the Hierarchy had sent him earlier from the other secret colonies hit by the vorcha extremists. He flashed through pictures and vids. Horrible visions. Women and children gunned down like useless cattle. One picture showed a human boy, much like the wounded one in the Xpesilix colony, crucified upside down with his brains and eyes missing from his head. An insult to both human and asari religions.

Jairus put up his fist to his mouth being sickened by the images as they continued to go through his Omni-tool like a gruesome slideshow. He grunted and closed his eyes deactivating his Omni-tool. He watched the stratosphere pass by and looked back down on the planet not being able to see much. The curtain of clouds blocking his view. He looked at the sniper with him and the other turian in his team, Doc. They had not seen what he had seen. He looked over at the doctor as the mesosphere approached.

Suddenly, Jairus activated his Omni-tool, opening a channel to the shuttle pilot. "Turn it around."

T'Cornia looked at him with surprise. She didn't know what to think as she looked at the other men who sat silent.

The two shuttles charged back down to the planet surface and landed exactly where they had been before. T'Cornia got out hugging her assistant. The team exited the two shuttles but stayed near them. Jairus exited last and saw all the people of Xpesilix. He saw them in the back of his mind in those mangled, brutal photos. He didn't want to see that.

Looking over at the other shuttle, he approached his team. Doc and the human sniper followed. The bigger two asked their commander, "Sir, just what the hell are we doing back here?!"

The other asked, "Yeah? Those vorcha death squads are going to be on us in twenty minutes!"

Looking around Jairus turned to his team, "Yeah I know. Look, anybody who wants to leave get on a shuttle right now."

The Doc came up to Jairus, "And what about you, sir?"

Giving him a hard thousand yard stair, Jairus simply said, "I'm staying."

The entire team winced in hard thought. They didn't know why their commanding officer was staying but they all thought about abandoning him.

The human sniper was the first to speak. "Sir, permission to speak feely?"

Jairus looked at him and patted him on the back, "Permission granted, kid. You're just as much as one of us than any turian."

"I don't know why we're sticking." He looked off with thought. "I don't know why you had the shuttles turn around or even why you are deciding to stay by yourself." He looked back at Jairus. "But I'm not abandoning my team. I'm staying."

Jairus shook his head.

The two big turians looked at their guns with slight smiles. Almost looking at the commander together they said, "We got enough ammo" - "And the means to use it."

Giving them an uncomfortable smile, the commander looked at the doc next.

The doc stuck out his open hand and Jairus took it. The doc said to his commanding officer, "I didn't start living until I connected with you. I'm dying by your side."

A hard stair came from Jairus letting go of the doc's hand nodding. He looked at T'Cornia, "Women and children first. On the shuttles now!"

T'Cornia and her vorcha assistant gathered everybody up and got them into shuttles. The team helped as the vorcha girl and her wounded, human friend were helped by one of the big turians. The little vorcha girl hugged the big turian by the neck saying as sweetly as she could, "Thank you!"

The big turian choked back some emotion and patted her on the back, "You're welcome little one."

Some of the elderly men were let on but most stayed. The vorcha assistant and T'Cornia said, "There's not enough room for your team and the others commander."

Jairus just said heartlessly, "I know."

He suddenly grabbed T'Cornia and put her on a shuttle with her assistant trying to get on the shuttle too. Jairus held back the vorcha saying to him, "Listen to me! Listen to me!"

The vorcha paused listening to Jairus.

"She has highest ranking with the Matriarchs. She's the only one that can tell anyone what we did here. This was suppose to be a black mission. The Counsel doesn't care if a few vorcha and humans wipe themselves out." Jairus looked at T'Cornia. "But if she makes noise, somebody's going to listen. Then maybe something will be done." Looking back at her assistant, pointing to the remaining men of Xpesilix. "Now, I suggest you get back with these people and secure them somewhere behind the tree line."

He hissed out, "What about you?"

Jairus charged the firing slide on his rifle and said, "I'm going to work."

Marching over to the men, Jairus spoke into his omni-tool to the shuttle's pilot, "Get out of here."

The shuttles shut their side doors automatically and began to hover off the ground. T'Cornia looked on with sad eyes. She knew what he was doing but she didn't know why. His team didn't know either but Jairus knew. He had seen the pictures. If he could hold off these death squads from doing it to the people of Xpesilix, he might be able to feel like he did when he first trained in the military all those lifetimes ago. Even if nothing good came from this, he knew in his heart that he had done the right thing. He hadn't followed orders. He had followed his heart. It felt so long since he had done something that felt even remotely like a "good thing". Looking at the remaining men of Xpesilix he said, "Alright, I want all of you to follow T'Cornia's assistant."

T'Cornia watched as the clouds broke apart for the charging shuttles. She could only sit there looking out the window. She turned her head slowly at all the children and their mothers jammed in the shuttle. Jairus had saved them. All of them. He had made sure that the death squads would be stopped. Giving his life for her cause. She couldn't help but feel terrible about herself feeling that she had doomed the brave soldier. Taking a breath, she said to herself, "No. It won't be in vain." Looking back down, "Thank you commander. Thank you." She kissed her hand and stuck it to the glass having tears filling her eyes. No one had ever given so much for what many believed was so little. In the end, they both fought for the same cause. Closing her eyes with regret and sadness, T'Cornia let her tears flow as the shuttle blasted into outer space away from the planet along with the other. Both holding the last remnants of the colony Xpesilix.

Watching the shuttles disappear into the sky, Jairus smiled with his head held high. A long time ago he thought he would never feel this way again. Taking a sigh he turned towards the men of Xpesilix and pointed at his human sniper, "All of you go with him." Walking towards his sniper, Jairus said to him, "I want you 60 yards in the tree line. Pick off whoever you can with that rifle of yours. You always stay 60 yards from us and keep these people at your back."

The human sniper nodded and ran into the tree line with the men and the assistant behind him. He was barking out orders as he rushed into the tree line.

Jairus headed over to his heavy gunners. "I need you guys behind cover. Separate and inward. I want a pyramid firing pattern into the horde."

The big turians took off from each other heading to two designated positions. Watching them, the doc came up next to Jairus asking, "And me, sir?"

Jairus patted him on the shoulder. "Right with me."

The two soldiers stood in the open field aiming their weapons. Jairus glanced at the doc, "You know what we're doing right?"

The doc cocked both of his sub-machine guns. "Yes sir. Just wish I knew why."

Another glace at the doc from Jairus saying, "I've seen a lot of evil and done a bit more in my time doc. Time for me to do some good for a change."

The doc just twitched his mandibles, "Good enough for me."

Jairus looked at the doc with a small amount of surprise, "Thanks for being a good friend to me -" Using his real name, "Rotus."

The doc looked at his commanding officer with feeling in his eyes, "You to Jairus."

A small commotion came from the tree line in front of them. Just a few yards out. They aimed their guns and stood stone still. Their eyes full of menace and ill-will. Their bodies trained for war and their minds focused on combat.

It was small at first. Just a rustle here and there. Then came the actual armed vorcha. They marched through the tree line and aimed their rifles at the two they saw. At least fifty of them poured out when out came a large krogan with red armor. The leader of the death squads. He was fiddling with the point of a dagger. His licked his teeth with a low growl. "So," He said to the soldiers. "Where are they?"

The two stayed silent.

The krogan shook his knife at the soldiers cockily. "Hierarchy goons. They don't send you guys down for nothing. So, where are they?"

Jarius looked at the doc, "They always talk too much, don't they?"

"Yep."

The krogan lost his attitude and looked at the two. He spread his arms, "Two of you against five thousand of us?!"

A loud shot was heard and the krogan's head plate blasted into pieces with a stream of blood flowing out of it. He landed on the ground dead from a sniper bullet.

Jairus commented in the ensuing, shocking silence, "Spirits, that kid is good!"

The vorcha army flooded in with gunfire stretching over ten yards wide. The two dodged in opposite directions firing back. The two big turians roared to life with their heavy weapons as they mowed down several groups of vorcha. All of them lighting on fire because of the incendiary rounds they were packing. Gunfire flooded the clearing as the turian squad fought hard against the oncoming horde. More and more of them flooded into the clearing firing at what they could see of the hidden soldiers.

Five or ten more vorcha fell to sniper fire having their heads explode from the sheer power of the rifle. Several explosions followed as grenades where tossed into the horde along with grenade launcher rounds. The horde dispersed being taken apart by the blasts. Trying to find good firing positions they still kept coming like a tidal wave against the squad.

Jairus ejected his heat sink and plowed in another expertly as him and the doc were going through them like discarded peanut shells. The two heavy gunners kept up the heavy, suppressive fire best they could, hitting what they could, reloading as fast as they could. The human sniper was having a hard time holding the barrel of the Viper as it stung hot, him having to eject and reload faster than he had ever had to.

Soon, there were over a thousand troops of vorcha and still more coming as Jairus and the doc hid behind the two big turians. They fired out in unison with the two big heavy gunners. They mowed down well over a hundred or more so far but they just kept coming. Heading towards them like an approaching, raging storm.

The four soldiers fled from the incoming storm as two more grenade shots were fired sending nearly ten vorcha flying in the air, some in separate pieces.

The squad converged in the tree line heading for the sniper position. When they got to the tree he had been firing from, they saw signs of the colony and the sniper but they were long gone. Jairus was grateful for that.

The four men fired at the approaching horde as they fired back. The crossfire ripping through the trees and tearing apart the jungle. Some of the inferno rounds lighting small fires but the vorcha army quickly stomped them out. The clearing packed with the vorcha death squads all firing at the small unit.

Taking his grenade launcher in hand, one of the big turians was going to fire but several rounds hit him bringing him to his knees. He fell to the ground with blood coming from his mouth. He struggled through the pain ripping through him with a growl. Focusing on his weapon he raised it aiming at the death army. Several more rounds hit him as he fired three shots at the death army.

Three explosions rocked the flood of vorcha sending limbs and dead vorcha into the air but not even slowing down the amassing horde. They stayed clustered firing at the squad. Not as trained fighters but more like raving concert addicts. Just firing in the squad's direction. No precision or training. Just full-on wanting of death and destruction.

Jairus went to his downed man and felt for a pulse. There was none. The other big turian looked and sneered at the death army. He focused intensely and mowed down thirty of them before having to reload.

Doc and Jairus gave him supporting fire. The sniper did his best to take out what he could. Every now and again they would see a vorcha's head burst. The three did their best to lay down a continual barrage of fire. Focused and firing they fought against themselves and against the horde approaching them. A storm of slugs passed by them. Loud echoing fire deafening them from the vorcha wall as they concentrated their minds and their fire.

The doc then got hit and spun to the ground. Jairus rushed to him as the big turian covered them with a hailstorm of fire. More enemy rounds ripped through the doc immobilizing him. Jairus began to pull at him but he pushed the commander off of him and revealed a Cain round. He put his side arm barrel to it and started taking breaths in rapid succession. He grabbed his commander and nodded his head with death and honor glazed in his eyes.

Jairus clasped his hand emotionally holding it tightly and nodded back with wide, sad eyes. He got up running and gunning.

Firing until he ran out of shaved slugs, the big turian reloaded and ran from the doc. He saluted him before running off into deep cover into the trees.

The doc looked up with his head struggling as the death army began to march over him with one vorcha looking down seeing the round and the side arm right next to it. Before he could pull the trigger, the doc pulled his.

The Cain round went up killing nearly two-thousand of the vorcha and wounding several others. The explosion was massive sending all the surviving members of the team down and the surviving members of Xpesilix. It took the group some time to get up and stand tall. Jairus looked out and saw the mushroom cloud towering above the trees. He looked at the big turian, "How much you got left?"

He threw down his two rifles, "Nothing!"

Jairus looked up at the tree the sniper human was in, "You?"

"Three shots." The sniper said quickly and hopelessly.

Jairus loaded in another heat sink. I got one extra left. He looked at it and tossed it up to the sniper. The human sniper grabbed it. Jairus said with stern eyes, "Make'em count."

The sniper rolled his head. He looked through the scope and picked off one of the survivors. More vorcha came through the remains marching over the black scorched earth. They fired in random directions and Jairus fired smartly taking down nearly six vorcha before throwing down his rifle with disgust. He looked at the men of Xpesilix, "Run!"

They stood there.

"Run!" Jairus screamed.

They stood there standing firm. The vorcha assistant of T'Cornia's came out of the group and said, "If we die then we do it with dignity. We would be honored to die in the presence of such heroes."

The sniper picked off another vorcha and loaded in his last heat sink.

Jairus grabbed the assistant, "My men are not dying for nothing. Now run and survive!"

Several loud shots from the sniper.

The vorcha just said to Jairus, "Were would we go? What would we do? You saved our women and children. That's all we ask. Your men died protecting future of Xpesilix. And so will we."

Jairus looked back out at the incoming horde as his sniper picked off the last of the vorcha squads he could. He yelled down to his commanding officer, "Out!" He slid down from the tree dropping his rifle. He pulled his side arm. Jairus just pushed down the gun in the sniper's hand and shook his head.

The sniper took a breath and said, "An honor to serve with you, sir."

The three soldiers stood in front of the men of the Xpesilix colony as they prepared for their deaths.

Suddenly, the vorcha army broke apart from heavy, explosive bombardment. Jairus yelled out, "Get down!" Everyone did as explosions rocked the surface and the vorcha death squads were wiped out. In just a few moments, they scattered into the jungle The remaining survivors were gone knowing they couldn't shoot down a spaceship.

Over ten Kodiaks landed in the clearing and over two-hundred turian soldiers poured out of the shuttles finding the surviving men. A few fighters flew by tracking down the last of the death squads. The admiral of the Higner above Xpesilix walked through his men and looked at Jairus. "You look like hell, commander."

Jairus asked with a bit of panic, "The shuttles?! Did they make it?!"

"Yeah. Imagine my surprise when a bunch of kids and women piled out! If we had taken our sweet-ass time you'd probably be dead! What happen to the mission commander?!"

Jairus patted his shoulder, "I'm just glad -" He collapsed down to his knees exhausted from the fight.

The admiral grabbed him and commanded, "Come on, get these guys some help!"

Jairus and his surviving team made it back to the Higner along with all the men of Xpesilix. They got back to the ship as Jairus was carried over to T'Cornia. She folded her hands in front of her and began to cry with tears of joy. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him for nearly half-an-hour. Jairus enjoying her embrace until pulling her away. He smiled kissing her on the forehead. He had a family to get back to and he felt like he could finally not only face them again but also the hornless turian in the mirror.


	3. Sort It Out: 1

**Sort It Out**

**Inspired by:** The Ghost and The Darkness  
**Starring:** Ashley Williams & Urdnot Wrex  
**Chapters:** 4  
**Rated: **M

* * *

**(A/N: My favorite movie! Also the last of the ones I had previously published as a one shot. Again, if you have never seen this movie, you really should!)**

* * *

Nervous breaths came from Ashley Williams. She sat in her hollowed-out, small living quarters trap with her rifle by her side. The screams from the workers outside gave her chills and cold sweat dripped inside her uniform as her ears took in the wailing from outside. Coupled with the roars and grumbles of the large varren outside.

Sitting there, waiting for her prey to walk in, she sat protected by electric bars. Easing up, glancing out through one of the busted out, small windows, she tried to spy the monsters that had terrorized her for weeks now. All she caught was a glimpse of an asari worker who ran past her with a slight biotic barrier and a humongous-sized varren that tackled her to the ground and all Ashley could see next was a fountain of blood. She could have taken a wild shot. The window not being big enough to fire through and aim. She slid back down wincing at not being able to go out there even though this trap, that she now sat in, was of her own ingenuity. For it to work she had to remain inside. Bait for the varren.

She remembered back to when she had come to the red dust covered planet. It was a simple mission by the Alliance. Guard a few hundred workers as they built a bridge. The first days had gone by swimmingly. Then the attacks started. She said she would sort it out. Killing one of the large varren with just a few shots from her Lancer. The hideously large beast had fallen in a short patch of tall grass and she was hailed as a hero. The large suns shining down on her as she walked through the crowds of workers. Patting her on the back, giving her words of encouragement, some even shaking her hand with a large, wide smile on her face. They all respected her.

That passed as more workers were killed and the monstrously sized varren came in more and more. Both of them. It would have been bad enough if there was just one but there were two. They just killed. They didn't even eat most of the workers. They just slaughtered.

No matter what she tried they seemed wise to it. Like they were thinking just as she was. The workers and her had built makeshift walls but they just jumped over those. Even keeping it electrified didn't work. They had chewed through several generators. The workers couldn't afford to lose anymore of those. Ashley even tried to call the Alliance for more reinforcements. Nothing. No aid, more excuses, she was all alone. She figured the embarrassment would have been too great.

So, there she sat. In an unused, discarded, living box. A deathtrap where it seemed not even death dared enter. This was the second night in a row it hadn't worked. Just sitting there listening to the bloodcurdling screams outside. Just all the screaming. Men and women. Asari, drell, vorcha, human. It all amalgamated into one chorus of death.

The bare sand reddened walls of the trashed building surrounding her. Visions of blood began to pour in through the walls. Ashley was having a hard time deciphering what was real and what was her guilt. The screaming or the blood on the walls.

She dared not sleep for fear of missing her chance to shoot one of them at her leisure. Grappling her rifle close it was the only thing that gave her some comfort. Some stability of mind.

The screaming began to die down and then - silence. Cold, bashing silence. It pounded her ears and shook her to her core even more than the screaming. Silence. It was a tidal wave of nothing. Not even the chirruping of insects or the wallowing of sadness could be heard in the camp. Just the silence. Black, dark, cold given auditable form. The only thing entering her ears now was her heavy breathing and the blood pumping through her veins. Which she felt guilt crawling into her like a large millipede scratching into ear, burrowing into her brain. The guilt born from her being alive and so many being dead.

The suns came up which promised nothing but another day of being on the planet with the beasts and more dead workers. Ashley got up and took her rifle with her. She deactivated the electric bars and walked slowly out of the trap. The suns hit her hard as they rose over the horizon bashing the land with light.

Taking a few steps, letting her eyes adjust to the shine, she decided to survey the carnage. The red sands laid heavy on the ground as she slowly walked towards the camp of the workers. The workers weren't even working on the bridge anymore. Most were taking care of their dead. Ashley's heart-ached as she walked past a screaming Asari on her knees. She was knelt next to another asari who was missing half her torso. Dark blood spilled everywhere as those cold eyes of the dead, blue woman looked up at lieutenant Williams as if judging her from beyond the grave.

Ashley lowered her head as she walked by leaving the bent asari with a drell and a vorcha trying to lift her. She collapsed grabbing onto the rest of the dead asari. Screaming, crying for her to come back and that she was sorry.

Biting her bottom lip, Ashley felt completely responsible for the carnage of the previous night. She had to fight through it as she stumbled over a small rock and nearly collapsed onto a long string of red, dried intestines strewn across the dirt. Bending down on her knees she looked over the field of death. All the workers trying to pick up what was left of their friends and family. A bucket laid right next to Ashley with red tinted water and a sponge. She set her rifle down and reached into the bucket ringing out the sponge slowly with a chuff of choked back tears. Setting the yellow pad on the guts she tried to clean it, silently sobbing as she did. She was just rubbing the meat into the dirt as she sobbed to herself not really aware of anything she was doing anymore.

Back-and-forth her hand went. The guts mushing into the ground. The sponge getting covered in dust and dried meat. She reached in the bucket with a sob and ringed out the sponge, squeeze it, looking backup at the workers. Two of them she spied carrying buckets full of what was left of several unfortunate souls. Tears streaming down their desperate, despairing faces, struggling with the weight of the buckets.

Looking back down she saw her hands tinted red with the dust of the landscape and the blood of these workers she was suppose to protect. These people were her responsibility and she had just sat there, in her safe cage, waiting for something that never came to be. Gagging on her own sadness, Ashley just knelt there, staring at her hands as if she wanted to rip them from her arms.

A loud hiss broke her concentration as a vorcha worker hissed at her, making her get to her feet as he took the bucket and sponge from her with anger. He pushed her rifle at her like it was a disease ridden object. She hesitated but finally picked it up seeing the familiar glair on his cheeks from crying. He hissed at her again dumping the remains of the intestines into the bucket with soft trilling as more tears came from his eyes. Closing them, he pushed on, picking up the remains and carrying the bucket with the rest to a hole in the ground where they would be burnt.

Ashley looked at all the workers in line with buckets and some caring dead bodies in their arms as they laid them gently in the hole to be burnt. They all waited in line and when they were done setting the remains in the hole, they slowly turned with restrained agony, going back for more.

Ashley made it back to her quarters walking up the steps into the small cabin with a drell she knew all to well waiting on her. In the small area he was sitting on a chair next to her bed with his head down and his hands above clasped together in prayer. He raised up his head with his pale green skin, looking at the lieutenant. Sad eyes adorned his face as he sniffed a bit saying, "Seventeen last night."

Looking away from him she sat on the edge of her bed next to him and put her rifle down.

"Some…" The drell choked. He put his hand to his mouth as if trying to pry the words out from some deep recess in his body. So deep in a dark abyss that he seemed to vomit them up continuing, "Some of them…weren't workers. They…dragged them out of their cabins." Every word sounding like another painful experience for the drell to say. As if the words themselves were razor laced and caused him horrendous harm to pull them up from his throat.

More heavy breathing from Ashley. It was her only response as she sat there with her guilt tearing at her. Much like if one of those large, beastly varren was in the room with her, tearing her apart more ferociously than any worker she had come across. Finally she said, "That's the most they have…" she stopped there feeling that the drell didn't care.

He stood up with his back to her. A soft voice coming from him, telling her, "I think I'm going to send the families back to their homes today."

"Will they let you do that Krakger?"

Looking at Ashley over his shoulder, Krakger said authoritative, "I don't care what they let me do anymore. Plus I'm going to give them some time to mourn."

Ashley was more concerned about the workers jobs than the bridge. "What about the bridge?"

A small sigh left Krakger, "It won't be done in time." His eyes heavy with regret. Many of the workers had a lot to lose if the bridge was not done on time but even more to lose if their families stayed at the killing field the small camp had become.

Ashley grabbed her rifle and said, "Krakger."

The mournful, despairingly eyed drell turned slightly to look at Ashley with weary.

"Find me three of the most dangerous men on the workforce you can find. I have an idea about tonight."

Krakger, with tired but angry eyes said back, "Why? You think they can change anything while you sit in your stupid contraption for a third night?" His lip curling at the word 'contraption.' The very thought of her sitting in that trap another night made him sick. Little did he know it made her just as sick.

"Krakger. I will be out here tonight. it's the three men I want in there."

"For what? So more blood can be shed?!" His anger swelling. For two nights she had been there and she couldn't kill either varren.

A restrained fury came over Ashley's face. Taking a glance at the wall she calmly said, "There won't be if everything goes according to plan."

"When has it lieutenant? Has any of your ideas worked yet?"

She couldn't argue with him there. She just looked away from him with pain in her eyes. Doubt clouding her heart and mind. Watching him leave to go find her three she actually tried to look away from the world as it seemed to face her down. Everything seemingly looking at her with as much judgment as the dead asari from earlier.

Time passed as Ashley made her rounds around the camp and building site. She was just one Alliance soldier guarding an area nearly two miles or more in diameter. She kept her eyes on the horizon looking for the two exceptionally large varren.

The one was black with red strips. Long, wavy spikes that ran along its back. As big as a large dog back on Earth and twice as muscular. The other was the same except for its color. A pearlescent white with blue stripes.

Red dust swirled around her as the suns hung above her like bright sentinels. The heat of the desert world making her sweat as her hard eyes scanned the landscape. It brought her memories back to Therum. Wishing any of the Normandy crew was here with her. If only to have a friendly face. Flatland stared back at her with the wind gently pushing her and the dust. Small spots of tall grass swayed with the hot wind haunting Ashley with phantoms of the giant varren. It played tricks on her as she thought she heard the roar of one on the wind. Turning with her rifle aimed she caught sight of the lonely, quiet camp. All the workers inside their quarters and tents mourning the recently deceased. Looking around with a dry swallow she blinked several times looking for what was not there. Ghosts. Haunting her from the night before.

As the suns passed through the sky with time waning down in the day, Krakger found three men who seemed to fit the role that Ashley had asked for. He walked up to the lieutenant, telling her, "I believe these men have what you are looking for."

Ashley walked down the line they stood in. They were disorganized, disgusting people. The first was a scarred-up drell. He held his gun like a briefcase and wiped his nose snorting at Ashley like a melancholy pig. The next were two vorcha also disorganized and seemed like monsters by their own right. One was missing half his face with burn scars while the other wore a patch over his right eye missing some of his lower jaw. She took a long, disappointed sigh but had to make the most with what she had. "You're thieves, murders, degenerates."

The one drell looked down, away from Ashley, ashamed of what he was.

Ashley then said a little more upbeat, "That's good."

Leading them into the back of the discarded quarters. She said next to the back wall, "You'll be here tonight. Hit that red switch over there and the electric bars will be up. You will have nothing to fear."

The one-eyed vorcha hissed with his shotgun handy, "That is right. Nothing."

Nodding politely she left the small box building with Krakger behind her asking, "So?"

"So what?" Ashely asked back.

"Will they do?"

Turning to look back at the building, "Yes. They will do." Turning her attention completely to Krakger, "Same plan as before. Get everybody indoors that you can. Leave me in the camp - alone."

He just nodded and walked away.

Night came quicker than Ashley thought it would. She was on the other side of the camp from the trap. She had to be confident that the two vorcha and drell could handle themselves. She just rested by the wall and looked out at the flatland. The night air was not cool. It was muggy and plenty of buzzing could be heard in the air. Wiping her face of sweat, Ashley tried to stay ready on the wall. Lack of sleep hitting her hard. Making her head hurt and her stomach overturn. The half-moon above giving hardly any light to the darkness. Just black lands hiding secrets that Ashley wished not to know the answer to. If those varren came from the darkness like ghosts in the night, what else was out there? Lurking just beyond the veil.

Seeing slight movement from one of the patches of tall grass she aimed her Avenger and waited for visual conformation. She saw something lumbering around out there. Barely visible but still there. Skulking around in silence. A quiet beast but whether it was 'her' beast she was unsure of.

She had held rifles all her life. A born soldier and never had a rifle felt so awkward as it did now. The rubber of the fore stock felt clammy and unnatural. The butt rubbed her armpit and shoulder hard making it feel alien to her. As if what she held was just a toy. A toy against a beast that was illusive, violent, and stronger than any bullet she could fire.

On the other side of the camp, in the trap, the three were sitting on the ground. The one vorcha fell asleep while the drell listened outside for any movement.

Suddenly, the small compartment building moved and there it was. The electrical bars the only thing separating the three men from the beast that stood before them. The other vorcha awoke the other. All three of them standing there, staring at it as it stared back at them.

The large varren's black scales stared at them running over its body like volcanic ash. Its red stripes looking like blood broken from onyx rock. It large, two-foot long claws click-clacking on the floor with a chuffing of the air from its massive head. Dark, rust colored eyes staring them down as the beast's underbelly was a faded Ivory. A lot like the white off of a skeleton's bones. Patters of red from the dust from the desert covered its underbelly only adding to the red stripes that crossed its back and haunches. Huge spines on its back swayed through the air like a shark's fin through water. Its teeth half as big as any man's arm stained from a recent meal. It just sauntered lightly at them, looking at them with wide eyes.

The two vorcha looked at each other and just hissed out at the beast and began to fire at it. The drell snapped his rifle up ad began to fire with the two rifles and the shotgun unloading on the fish dog. It roared at them and began to avoid the shots.

Snapping her head at the gunfire, Ashley nearly went running but then she turned her head slowly at another noise. A rustling out on the plain, nearly beyond her line of vision, was the white varren. It walked out slowly with it eyes shinning in what little moonlight there was. It looked like a bright-eyed specter in the moonlight as it sauntered out in the darkness daring the lieutenant to shoot it. It pivoted its glowing eyes at her and lowered its large head with those dark blue stripes covering its back. The moonlight giving its scales a pearlescent glow with the blue stripes looking like sun bursts across a white star. Those same large spikes on its back swaying with the hot wind and keeping the big varren balanced. Shifting like the boney fingers of the Grim Reaper ushering Williams to her death.

Ashely heard more gunfire but trained on the varren in front of her as she aimed her rifle on it. Firing out at the varren, the creature roared out and took off dodging her bullets like nothing she had ever seen before. It was so far off she needed to use her scope but even then with it moving around, it barely could be seen. Almost like it knew the right range it needed to be at.

On the opposite side, the three fired at the varren. Each one taking aim but couldn't hit it. As short a distance as it was, all their shots went past it. They kept firing with the beast dodging every round. The three beginning to feel they were just firing at some sort of ghost. Becoming desperate, the vorcha with the shotgun got closer to the electric bars, firing his shotgun wildly. He yelled at the varren expending three heat sinks at the creature before it lashed out with its large claws and swiped him on the arm. It was shocked back by the bars but the damage had been done.

The vorcha hissed with pain dropping the shotgun and falling down where his arm was hanging by just a piece of flesh. The others came to his aid looking at the monstrosity with wide, fear laden eyes. Blood pouring from his arm soaking the floor. Pain ripped through the vorcha's arm as he hung off his friends going into shock.

Swaying its head with small growls and staring at the others. Dark, rust brown eyes just staring. In those eyes, the two saw the blood of so many victims. Hearing ethereal screams as this enormous unnatural monster stood in front of them with evil coursing through its eyes and blood of countless dead on it teeth and claws. It raised its claws and licked the vorcha's blood off of them as the vorcha cried out in extreme pain.

It sat there licking its claws clean. Another taunt from the beast. Closing its eyes enjoying the taste. It then looked out of the opening it had come through and jumped out.

Meanwhile, Ashley fired at the white varren until it was joined by its other. They both took off into the night as Ashley heard the screams from the trap. She rushed over and saw the wounded vorcha. Deactivating the electrical bars she let them take their friend to the hospital.

Watching the two carry him out she looked around and saw plenty of used heat sinks and blood but nothing from the beast. Not one shot had connected. Not one. Wincing with confusion she bent down in despair. Looking all over the floor not one drop of varren blood. Standing she heard a long roar from the two. Rushing out, looking around the plains she saw nothing. She heard them though. Taunting her. Was it really them? Was she still hearing things that weren't there? Was it them roaring or just her being paranoid? There roars still haunting her whether real or not. Beads of sweat stinging her eyes. Fear of the unknown making her iron constitution fade to easily dispersed sand. Whatever it might be, they were still out there and they would be back. To sort it out.


	4. Sort It Out: 2

"Of course he kept moving!" Ashley yelled at the unharmed vorcha and drell. Slamming the butt of her rifle on the wall in anger. The sunlight from early afternoon beaming in through the tiny windows. "What did you want him to do?! Sit down and pose for you?!" Calming herself a tad, she pointed at the opposite side of the trap, she told them with vigor, "Now this worked! He came in, you triggered the electric bars - he couldn't have been more than three feet from the three of you and you couldn't even wound it!" Ashley started shouting again. She walked away from them in disgust. "Should have given you rocks - not rifles."

Stomping out of the cage, walking away looking off in several directions in anger. Not really angry at the three's incompetence but more so at the two beasts foiling her again. The only good thing she could figure to come out off all this was that no one died last night.

The vorcha came out of the trap saying with his rifle proudly held, hissing with confidence, "Next time! We be better!"

Krakger walked in front Williams, pointing at Ashley, 'The next time?! There will be no next time! Demons have come here! They have come from off the night winds for our blood and to eat our children! They came when you came, lieutenant Williams!"

Not wanting to start more of a scene then what there already was, she passed by Krakger with barely a glance, telling him, "You know you don't believe that."

"Now you are telling me my beliefs?! I don't think so!"

Ashley turned around with a pointing finger at him, "You know I wasn't so don't force it!"

Krakger grabbed her finger and threw it out of his face, "How many more have to die?! You were sent here to protect us! Why?! Why are you not protecting us?!"

A group started gathering around the two arguing. Ashley's attempt to maintain some civility had failed. The workers gathered around her like vultures. She shriveled up against those harsh, judgmental eyes gawking at her. Staring her down, making her feel useless. Nothing she tried had worked. Still trying to put on airs of control as Krakger went on yelling at her, she swallowed and tried to capture dominance. Marching up to Krakger with a sturdy brow and her chin up, faking mean eyes, she yelled at him, "Be careful!"

He just backed her down with his heightening rage, "You don't tell me to be careful! You don't tell me or anyone else in this camp what to do! Now you will listen while I talk!"

A gun was suddenly shoved up against Krakger's temple. A large hand cannon with a barrel that nearly covered most of his head. Holding it was a three-fingered hand covered in maroon armor. A monstrous growl came from the large gun wielder, "Change in plans!"

Ashley knew who it was before the large, scarred up krogan said anything, "Wrex?!"

"Get them back! Get them all back!" Wrex roared out as he shoved the gun into the temple of the angry drell who was now paralyzed with fear.

Not enough though to wave every worker back from the madman krogan and Ashley, with the gun to his head. "Go back!" He shouted with fear soaked in his voice. Pouring out of him from every orifice. "Go back quickly. My gods!"

Taking a glance around to make sure everyone was back, Wrex resituated himself, "Alright, now you got yourself a question that really needs answering. Question is: Will I pull this trigger?"

Krakger stuttered a bit as he spoke, "You - you don't know all the horror that's happened here!"

Ashley, trying to hold back her joy to see her friend, tried to calm the situation again, "He will pull the trigger, Kragker!"

"The - the - the Devil has come here!"

Wrex sneered lowering his scarred-up plate, "Oh you're right there! The Devil has come to this shithole of a world." Wrex tugged on Kragker's clothes demanding, "Look at me!"

Shaken, tilting his head towards the infuriated krogan with fear and doubt of seeing another sunrise in his eyes. Krakger looked at Wrex.

"I am the Devil!" Wrex hissed out with a sneer and a show of his massive teeth.

Not knowing what to say, deciding that pissing himself might be a viable option at this point, Kragker said with as much conviction as he could, "I am a man of peace!"

Looking around, checking to see that the previous ruckus had died down, Wrex said slightly lowering his gun, "You sound like a man that wants to live."

Krager busted out with every word like it was his last, "Most certainly! Absolutely! Yes!"

"Well then, you shall." Wrex said, putting his handgun back on his hip with a sly smile crossing his face. "Now your name is Krakger, right?" Wrex asked still wanting to torment the drell a little bit.

Krakger just nodded silently.

"Well, I've got a good feeling that we won't be having anymore of these kinds of outbursts. Agreed?"

Again, Krakger nodded solemnly with barely a word uttered just edging out, "I think its been a pleasure."

Walking away from Krakger up to Ashley, Wrex's smile turned into a wide grin. Ashley wrapped her arms around him with a hug and he returned it. The both of them overjoyed to see each other although for different reasons. Ashley couldn't help but let out a "Oh Wrex. It's so good to see you!"

"You too Williams." Wrex said.

They both broke and Ashley said, fixing her hair, "So, what brings you out this way?"

Wrex looked around at the workers then back to his friend, "I heard a few of your messages to the Alliance. Knowing you're not as big as an idiot as they seem to think you are, I thought I'd stop by to see what was going on."

Turning from her friend letting the tragic events flood her mind again. "Wrex, its been awful. There are close to forty dead."

"Forty?!" Wrex barked out surprised. "That's amazing. So what are we talking about? Pirates, rachni - reapers?"

Shaking her head she looked back disgraced at him. "Two varren are killing everybody. These varren are - not like varren."

Staring Ashley down with concern but seeing the tragedy in her eyes, Wrex knew she was not one to make up wild stories. He wanted to reach out and coddle her face seeing the horrendous pain she had gone through but he resisted. "You know, I've hunted my fair share of varren in my day. If you want I could probably stick around and give a human like you some old krogan pointers."

Ashley smiled coyly. "I'd like that. Thanks Wrex."

Patting her on the shoulder hard with an excited smile, Wrex said enthusiastically, "Let's prepare for battle!"

The first place Wrex went was the infirmary. Ashley followed right behind him as he walked through the camp like he owned the place. Ashley just couldn't get over seeing Wrex here, on this planet, helping her. It was like a dream come true. If there was anybody besides Shepard and Garrus she respected in battle, it was Wrex. Unlike Shepard and Garrus though she knew Wrex probably had centuries of varren hunting expertise. If there was anyone who could solve her situation of giant, unstoppable varren, it was Wrex.

Busting through the two front doors of the hospital, Wrex was hit in the face by the sight of over twenty hurt and sick workers along with the horrible stench of rotten flesh and medical waste. It gagged him and he took a step back outside breathing in some fresh air. He choked out looking over at Ashley with a bow, "You been in here before?"

She just shook her head turning away from the inside, "Once or twice. I try not to."

Taking a big whiff of fresh air and wiping his nose, Wrex coughed out, "Alright." Walking into the infirmary he boasted, "I want a new hospital built and I want it built by tonight!"

An asari doctor tending to a patient belted out, "What?! That's a terrible idea! Who are you?!"

Wrex put up his hands mockingly, "Oh I'm sorry." He said with a growl. "I guess you're the doctor so you know everything!"

Ashley walked in looking at the doctor with a twitch of her brow. A look that freed Ashley from any responsibility of her krogan friend. She stood next to the doctor as Wrex went on.

"I suppose it would be useless to tell you that with all the rotten flesh and sickness and death in this building that it makes for a very appealing target for carrion eaters like varren. I suppose I could tell you that varren can smell rotten flesh and all types of blood from nearly three miles away. I suppose I could tell you that I just saw fresh claw marks out there which already make me think they're thinking about making this an all-night buffet." With every word Wrex inching closer to the doctor with his voice and eyes getting more intense. "But I don't want to answer you when you question me because you make me look like I don't know what I'm doing!" By this time, Wrex was staring down the doctor, towering over the small, white-coated asari. Yelling in her face, "Now if anybody thinks I'm an idiot then please speak up right now!" He just tilted his head with a grimace of death on his face. Intimidating the doctor to the point of silence. Wrex then yelled out at Ashley, asking her if she thought he was a fool. "Lieutenant Williams?"

She just shook her head with a respectable, stone-cold silence.

Wrex looked back at the doctor. "Well then, I guess we're all in agreement."

Exiting the hospital with Ashley right behind him, Wrex said back, "This should be interesting, How big did you say they were Ashley?"

Ashley just looked at her friend with a cocked eyebrow, "I didn't. But if I had they stand about five feet maybe higher. That's not including those spikes on their backs."

Rolling his hands with a concerned look. "Five feet? They can't be varren then."

She put her hand on him to get a look. He turned and gazed at her with confusion. She said, "They're varren, Wrex. I know, I've been shooting at them enough."

Krakger came around the corner and stopped when he saw the big krogan. He looked at him frightfully, asking Ashley, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

A melancholy stare came from Ashley. "Yes. Get every work still here and whatever odd parts you can find have them build a clean, new hospital. It needs to be done by tonight."

Pushing away from her, Krakger said, "Again with these wild ideas?!"

"Do you want another scene from before?!" Ashley said, subtly motioning at her big, monstrous friend. His eyes dared not leave the krogan battlemaster as he said with a shaken voice, "I'll - see what I can do."

She nodded sending him off. Turning, Ashley looked at Wrex with his arms folded leaning against a wall. He had a slight smile on his face telling his human friend "You still got it Williams."

Shyly she smiled, "Thanks Wrex. So what's the plan now?"

Pointing at the old infirmary, "Once they get everyone cleared out of here, we spend the night here. Cover the place in blood and let those varren come running."

"Where are we going to get that much excess blood?"

Unfolding his arms with that same smile, Wrex told her, "Varren aren't the only animals on this planet. You leave it to me." Cocking the shotgun from behind his back and setting off to put his plan in motion.

With a respectful, caring, and yet concerned look, she watched him walk off leaving her by the hospital to contemplate a lot of things on her mind. At the forefront was wondering if she should have used her irregular channels sooner. Wondering if it was too late because of her emblematic trust in the Alliance. Could lives been saved? She didn't want to think about it walking away from the building.

The suns burnt the day away as darkness swept the land. This night was especially sickening to Williams. Not because of the sweltering heat and the lack of any breeze. Not because she felt slightly ill from nearly a third night without sleep. Because she was in a large room with a gruff krogan and blood all over the floorboards she stood on. Any other night and this situation would have been too much for her to take. Never mind the slippery texture of the mixed blood and not knowing from where or what it came from, it stunk to high hell. Like putting a bunch of rotten meat together, slapping it in a blender, pouring the puree all over the floor, and then trying to walk over it for your own morbid amusement.

Wrex was silent as he watched Ashley pace in the room. He sighed out, "Ash?"

She stopped looking at him like a surprised deer in headlights, "What?!"

"You're going to wear a whole in the world you keep pacing like that."

Apathetically she sighed saying, "Sorry Wrex. It's just I've been through this whole song and dance too many times."

"Well there's a difference this time." Wrex said with his arms crossed and a calming sound to his voice.

"Yeah and what's that?!" Ashley's tone quasi-facetious.

With a growling, beguiling tone, Wrex said confidently and protectively, "You didn't have me."

It made Williams smile. More so than she had in a long time being on the red, dirt-caked world. It didn't last long though as her face transformed back to its melancholy, anxious visage.

Asking after a few more moments of dead air, Wrex decided he wanted to know, "Was that box trap your idea?"

She just walked around and nodded her head sadly.

Wrex nodded a bit more enthusiastically, "Great idea! Used the same thing back on Tuchanka for a pack of them."

Depressingly, Ashley said, "Yeah, but yours worked."

"No, no as a point of fact it didn't. Still was a good idea."

That made Ashley smile again.

The quiet of the night made Ashley nervous. She began pacing again. Almost marching in short lines. Her Avenger rifle slightly up in a distinguished fashion like back in boot camp. She couldn't help it. Her whole body felt nervous. Her mind riddled with failure. Not much riled Ashley but the waiting, as she had done so many times, was killing her. It reminded her of the two nights she spent in her box trap.

Suddenly, she stopped. She asked Wrex, "There? Did you hear it?!"

"Hear what?" Wrex asked confusingly only hearing the silence of night.

"You don't hear that?" Ashley asked, hearing the roars of the varren. Faint but she heard them.

"Ash, they're not here. They're nowhere close to here. I would have heard them."

Looking at her friend with slight fire in her eyes, she nearly took up her rifle against him, "Don't tell me! I know what I hear!" Yelling at Wrex.

Calmly, the krogan battlemaster said, "When they get here we will kill them. Take it easy Williams. Hell, I'll let you shoot the bastards yourself if you want."

"You don't know!" Ashley yelled in his face. She then quickly looked to the floor with wide, lost eyes, "How could you, you haven't been here. Seen…." She closed her eyes, "What I've seen!" She looked back at him sadly. "I don't close my eyes anymore Wrex. When I do their victims are there. When I hear nothing, I hear them."

"Ash, take it easy. I'm here now." he said calmly patting his good friend on the shoulder. "These varren are not going to give you anymore trouble. We'll sort it out."

A few seconds had gone by when they both heard the loud footsteps of a big varren. Ash swung her rifle close to her face, turning towards the noise. "It's one of them!" Stacking on the front door. Wrex joined her slightly at odds on her judgment, "You sure? It sounds too big."

Replying back, Ash held her rifle with tenacity, "I'm sure Wrex! I've heard that heavy clicking way to many times!" Kicking open the two front doors, Ash and Wrex both pointed their guns at the darkness. Nothing. They looked around but heard and saw nothing. "Well, where the hell is it?! Maybe it left?!" Wrex barked annoyed.

Ashley held her rifle cautiously, saying solemnly, "No they didn't. They love playing this cat-and-mouse shit!"

Hearing a heavy pattering above them, they both swung their weapons towards the roof. Both Wrex and Ashley carefully followed the small puffs of wood dust coming from the metal ceiling's wooden rafters. Halfway in the building, Wrex said quietly, "Ash, go up top. She if you can't shoot it from there. I'll stay down here in case it decides to go through the roof."

Agreeing silently, Ashley headed out through the front door and climbed up the building to the top where she saw nothing. Talking to Wrex through the comms channel she told him, "Wrex, there's nothing up here."

Staring at the ceiling he just answered back, "What?! There's got to be! How fast is this damn thing?!"

"I'm telling you its not up here!" She said, slinging her rifle on the roof climbing up on the metal ceiling. Twisting and turning with stress gnawing away at her mind and bones. Trying to keep her training intact, she expected an attack from anywhere. Even the threat of them flying in to snatch her up like an eagle with its prey did not elude her ever-strained mind.

Below, a hard bang came from the wall next to Wrex. The krogan took a step back and aimed his shotgun. Eyes fixed and in war-mode. He contacted Ashley on the roof, "Williams. They're at the edge of the building. Western side."

Wrex fired a shot blowing through the weak metal wall creating a very large, nasty hole. Ashley came running as quickly as she could on the slanted roof. She aimed down where Wrex had shot out and saw nothing. Traveling her sights along the edge of the building she saw a quick flicker of white and blue flesh. She took lightning quick, short steps to keep her balance and fired down. Wrex blasted through the front doors hearing the loud drumming of his partner's Avenger seeing the large, white varren running away. Barely glimpsing the large haunches of the unbelievably tall beast he shot off his mouth before his gun. "Goddamn! That's the biggest varren I've ever seen!"

Sliding off the roof, landing on her ass, Ashley got up quickly ejecting a thermal clip. Wrex helped her up as she spit at him, "What are you waiting for?! After it!"

The two took off in the direction it escaped. Rounding a few personnel quarters they fired after the large, fast monster. It jumped the wall and ran off into the desert. The two determined hunters on its trail. It dragged them deep into the night. Eluding them to nearly a point of no return.

Back at the camp, in the newly built hospital, the asari doctor was feeding some medicine to one of the sick. A drell who had come down with raspy breathing. The dry, arid wind not acting well with his lungs. All she could do was give him some steroids and a light smile.

Taking the small bowel from his chin she returned it to a small sink. There were many more she would have to attended to tonight. Another patient was feeling even more ill. Washing her hands she turned and thought she saw a shadow move by the sheet making up the thin walls of the new hospital. Shaking it off she turned around back towards the sink and was decapitated by massive jaws.

The red and black varren had snapped her head off, chowing down the asari's skull, and then lapping at the fountain of blood her body was spraying. The hospital went into a panic as the big, red and black beast gaited into the large tent to kill and feast. The next one was a vorcha trying to help the doctor. The varren pounced on his back and broke his neck tossing his useless body to the side. The ragged breathing drell got up from his bed keeping a building tool underneath for protection but it did no good as the monster jumped on top of him digging into his body like a dog digging through dirt. Blood and anatomy flew out from the drell as his gargled screams died after only a few seconds.

When he was dead the big varren jumped from him onto another asari. It tore her head tentacles off making her scream with blood gushing from the back of her head like a geyser. She fell to the ground screaming as it grabbed her skull between its powerful jaws and ripped her head off easily. Not even bothering to eat it. Just tearing it from her body and discarding it like tainted meat.

It snapped at a few running victims. The ones that could run. It got one between its teeth tripping them up leaving large wounds in his ankle. A human man reaching down with a yell. The massive varren chomped into his stomach not even eating. Just gnawing and tearing. Ripping bones from his chest as its eyes peered from its buffet for another victim.

Three workers, two asari and a human, were running for the exit when they ran across the white and blue varren. It grabbed the smallest of the three, one of the asari, and dragged her outside where a big splash of blood soaked the tent. The other two remaining workers ran for their lives.

Soon, the big white and blue varren entered covered in dark blood from it asari meal. It tackled a drell and clawed right into his back getting to his heart, gulping it down hungrily.

Back out in the desert, too far away to hear or see the camp, Wrex and Ashley were looking for the white and blue one. After about ten minutes, Ashley noticed a pattern in it prints. They were heading back to the camp. "Oh no!" Ashley screamed out. She began running back with Wrex puzzled but following nonetheless.

He decided to ask, "What?! What's going on Ash?!"

"He doubled back towards the camp! The fucker had us trailing him while the other - Goddamn it no!" She ran faster. Sprinting with all her might.

Racing with her, Wrex tried to settle her down, yelling out, "Ash! Be reasonable! Varren aren't that smart!"

Whipping past a few bushels of tall grass she roared back at Wrex, "These ones are!"

The two of them entered the camp around the same time with Wrex just a few seconds behind the lieutenant. She ran up to the newly built hospital with a few runaways fleeing for their lives. It was too late. The commotion had died down and the two varren were gone. Looking in through the tent, Ash was assaulted with a visceral visage of violence and evisceration. Staring away she screamed with all her might, "No! Goddamn it no!" She started screaming towards the stars cursing Heaven and the mean, spiteful God she once put her faith in.

Rushing over, Wrex watched his good friend's meltdown. He decided to peer in the tent. What he saw was as horrendous as any bloody battlefield he had ever stood on. Slowly walking in, Wrex looked over the mangled pieces of anatomy. Blood and carnage draped over the place looking even worse than the old hospital. It was different seeing innocence sprayed over a hospital than soldiers blasted apart in a bunker. These people were just workers trying to support their families with what little they made. Wrex never thought he would ever see a bloodbath that could make him sick but this nightmarish, splattered blood and indiscernible bodies was doing the trick. Death hung in the air and it was as if he had just entered its house.

Walking up to a drell crying over a dead asari who was missing her face and most of her chest, Wrex stopped and stared. His eyes full of confusion and remorse. "I thought - I didn't believe her." He grunted out, ashamed of himself.

The drell looked up at him with tears streaming down his face. "You - Where were you?! You were suppose to help us!" He looked away from Wrex. "That Alliance bitch brought them here!" Looking back at him, "They'll kill you! They'll kill us all!" Gripping the asari and rocking her back-and-forth. Coddling the dead body as he was drenched in her blood.

Combing his plate with his hand, Wrex left the tent and saw Ashley sitting by her lonesome. Her rifle leaning next to her. Sitting down next to her, he imitated her head down pose. After a minute he looked up from the ground, "I owe you an apology, Williams."

Ash looked depressingly over at Wrex. She wiped her face of tears asking, "For what Wrex? You didn't do this!"

"No. But I should've believed you. I didn't think these varren were any different from others." Shaking his head he said, "My mistake."

"No Wrex. These people are my responsibility. I was sent here take care of'em. Fantastic fucking job I'm doing so far!"

Glancing over at her with worry for his friend, he asked, "Is it always like this?"

Ashley looked out in no particular direction letting all the gore haunt her. "Every goddamn night!" Both of them put their heads down again. Sitting there letting their guilt hammer them into the ground.

After a few more minutes, Krakger was seen. He was helping a few of the workers with what was left of the bodies. He soon broke off and stood in front of the two. Angrily yelling at them, "Now what?! Neither hospital is safe! How are you going to help us now?! Are you going to herd us like cattle now and lure them out?! How many more plans are you going to try before we are all dead?!"

Wrex stood up with a mean growl but Ashley grabbed his arm. "No Wrex. He's got all the right in the world."

Looking at Ash menacingly, "No, he doesn't! They think you're the reason they're here Ash."

Standing with Wrex, Ashley said confidently, "Maybe they're right." Looking back at Krakger. "The shuttles that took the families away, how long till they can return?"

"Two - Three days."

"Put a rush on them. Tell the workers there is to be no more work." She looked at Krakger determinately, "Get them out of here. All of them!"

Lowering his eyes from Ashley he asked, "Are you sure?"

Taking a step towards Krakger with a piercing, stone-cold stare, "I am very sure!"

Krakger swallowed and said, "I'll - I'll go tell them." Running off to tell everybody. A hidden relief rushing through his body.

Sitting back down with a sigh, Ash said to herself auditable enough for Wrex to hear it, "I'm tired of giving them dinner. If they want anything to eat from now on. It'll have to be you or me."

Scooting towards Ashley, draping his big arm around her shoulders, "Well, I got a feeling that they aren't going to be eating so good next time."

A wry, weak smile graced Ashley's face as she slid out from Wrex's arm and headed towards her small quarters. Her head down forgetting her rifle. Her feet dragged in the sand as she approached.

Standing up, Wrex called to her, "Ash?"

She tiredly turned to look at her krogan partner.

Hesitating on asking if she needed some company, he said instead, "Get some sleep."

Nodding she turned groggily and headed for her quarters. More correctly, her bed.

Wrex was left standing there as he heard the roaring. It was the varren. He didn't know if it was real or if it was just an echoing of events long since past. Whatever it was, Wrex couldn't imagine going through weeks of it. Trying to convince himself he wasn't hearing it he turned to Ashley and asked, "Ash?!"

Closing her eyes with annoyance, sleepiness, and debilitating depression, she turned one final time. "Yeah?"

"Do you - do you hear them?"

Looking out towards the wall, past it into the desert landscape she focused. She took a sigh saying, "All the time. They never stop. Why?"

"I hear them." Wrex said softly. Concerned.

"I don't think there is enough blood in the universe to make them stop drinking."


	5. Sort It Out: 3

Shuttles began to drift out of the sky. Mostly Kodiaks. It had been two days since the attack on the new infirmary. The two varren hadn't been back but that didn't stop the workers running towards the shuttles. They all jammed in pushing and shoving each other. Krakger watched as the side door was shut on him and he was still looking at Ashley standing, watching the shuttles take to the sky. He was leaving her with the two killers. A look of indifference on his face. He was happy to be leaving but sickened with himself that he wasn't staying with her. He knew she cared and maybe he didn't believe all the hurtful nasty things he said but that didn't matter. He was leaving and he could swallow his pride if it meant living to see tomorrow. His shuttle pulled up into the air and flew off into the sky clearing the clouds and the stratosphere.

Squinting at the shuttles with the two suns glairing in her eyes, Ashley watched as they lifted off. She turned from them and began walking through the empty camp. Coming across the box trap she looked at it with quelled contempt. The wall was next as she remembered the tireless days the workers and herself spent building that wall to keep out the varren. Crossing by the two infirmaries she couldn't even look at them without feeling her own stomach coming up to kick her in the throat.

Stopping, Ashley saw Wrex standing solemnly in some red, tall grass. He was about a few meters from the unfinished bridge. She walked up to him slowly and looked at him shyly.

Letting out a long sigh, Wrex finally said, "Funny how something as a bridge could have been so beautiful. I wish they would have been able to finish it."

Ashley looked at Wrex with a slight smirk, "No you don't. If you hadn't heard me calling out, you'd have never even visited this planet. And if you had, you'd still believe it was a shithole."

"Yeah." Wrex growled out. "But it sounded good." Returning her smile.

She smiled with him looking out at the flatland. Looking at her rifle in her hands, she said "Thanks for returning my rifle."

Shrugging, Wrex said with a far glance, "No problem Williams." He paused for a moment then told her, "Well, I just saw fresh claw tracks heading out that way." Pointing out towards the horizon the way they were facing.

Nodding, Ashley looked at her good friend with him exchanging a look back at her. Finally, she said, "Let's go get'em!"

Patting her shoulder with a slight laugh he held his shotgun with readiness walking right for the claw prints to track them. Ashley held her rifle with a slight smile and walked with him.

The flatland began to become alluvial. It raised up a little and the more they tracked down the tracks, the higher the ground became and the more tracks they saw. As the two partners walked forward over the hills tracking down the claw marks, Wrex said, "When I was a kid my father use to yell and scream at me that I was weak and no good. He wasn't the problem. My brother Wreav actually use to beat me up after that on order from my father. He wasn't the problem either. Alone my dad was scared to do anything against me and my brother didn't have the brains the galaxy gave a pyjack. Alone they were just bullies but when they got together - they were lethal - they were real killers."

Stepping up another hill with her krogan cohort, Ashley asked, "What happen to them?"

Looking at her with a grin of malice, "I got bigger."

The two stopped in front of a large, rocky crag. The tracks lead right inside. A hole was on the crag face going inside where the two had to duck inside. Both of them activating their Omni-tool lights. The cave wasn't very big round but seemed long. Shinning their lights around the rocky interior they tried to pick back up the trail. They were in a one-way tunnel of rock. Walking for about eight minutes, Wrex finally stopped Ashley, "Williams, this is going to sound strange but we shouldn't be deep in this cave."

"Why?"

"We should have been attacked by other varren by now. I mean, these two should be both alpha males."

Ignoring him, not wanting to point-out once again that these varren were not like other varren she went on. Wrex followed. The two proceeding through the cave not knowing what they would find. Neither of them disregarding any radical idea that popped into their heads.

Coming to a dead end they both caught a glimpse of some kind of white rock below their feet. Flashing their lights down they saw it wasn't rock at all. It was bones. Vorcha, drell, krogan, human, asari, salarian, turian, nearly every sapient race in the galaxy was in a row that seemed to extend into a large pile at the end of the tunnel.

Their eyes wide with shock and surprise. Ashley barely uttered out, "There must be hundreds!"

Swinging his light all over the bones, Wrex swallowed hard with a rock hard stare, "How long have they been doing this?!"

Their lights illuminated more bones as they stood at the threshold of the cave mausoleum. The bones staring back at them like grim trophies that neither could believe. A cornucopia of death of so many dead. The skeletal remains all shapes and sizes.

Then, they moved. A pile of them rumbled in the back rising up from the rest. Crumbling marrow fell from the pile as something underneath rose up from the dead. Hidden under the blanket of decay was the white varren. His blue markings over white scales being revealed as the bones tumbled to either side of it. It roared with a dark, menacing rumble rising from the sea of mortis. Stepping up onto the pile, breaking bones underneath its weight, it headed towards the two hunters slowly. A bellow came from it as it approached. Its muscles flexing to keep its heavy body stable on the pile of bones. A crushing and cracking being heard underneath its claws as it progressed towards the two. Moving with enough terror inducing ferocity to stun both Wrex and Ashley.

However, Wrex was the first to move as he raised his shotgun but the animal leaped for the krogan and knocked him down biting at his hand. Wrex fought with the big creature lifting it off of him but not before the monster-sized varren got in one good chomp in his hand. Wrex roared out in pain trying to shake the oversized fishdog from him.

That was when Ashley aimed her rifle and shot scoring five hits in the ribs of the beastly varren. Jumping from its prey it went after Ashley next jumping on her knocking her rifle from her hands. The malevolent monster drooled and growled at her, hovering over her with murderous eyes. It went to bite her head but Ashley grabbed its jaws. Holding them open with both hands as it struggled and fought to get away. Ashley's armor protecting her hands from the teeth. She kept glancing in desperation at her rifle. At first, it tried to bite down but the lieutenant grunted and groaned straining to keep the mouth open. Spit and sweat coming from Ashley as she fought with its mouth. The varren growling at her with force, shaking with exertion to clamp down on anything of Williams'. Then it dragged her all over the cave floor to get out of her clutches. She wasn't letting go. Trying to pull back its head from Ashley's strong hands. Gritting her teeth and roaring out with a bellow of her own. It took a swipe at her as it dragged her around the cave, shaking its head, pulling backwards. She missed the claws but still kept clutched on the beast. Snot and drool splashed on Ashley's armor as the creature dragged her to get her off. It chuffed the air with Ashley kicking it in the stomach. Two more swipes at her as she evaded them both. A light crack piercing her armor from the last slash. It wasn't much but it was a weak point. A weak point Ashley was unaware of.

Wrex finally got up off the ground and held his shotgun with one hand, "Ashley! Move!"

Roaring out, Ashley screamed like a savage woman at Wrex, "I can't!"

"Damn it!" Wrex said tossing down his shotgun, holding his damaged hand, grabbing Ashley's Avenger. He took aim and released enough slugs into the varren to eject a heat sink. The shots blasted into the creature's anatomy creating fissures of blood. It moaned out in pain and fell off of Ashley with a pool of blood wading out from its body. Ashley, In a state of adrenaline pumping insanity, grabbed her pistol and shot at the animal ejecting two heat sinks from the numerous shots fired. Knowing how she felt, Wrex made sure she saw her Avenger as she tore it from his grasp and unloaded on the animal. The weapon finally clicked empty as Ashley calmed herself and sat down on the cave floor, ejecting the heat sink with a long inhale. Gathering her senses back having never really lost it like that before. The white varren thoroughly dead.

Staring at the dead and bloody varren she pushed herself up against the cave wall and took a few more relaxing breaths. Wrex sat down right next to her with his shotgun and his hand beginning to heal. It would take awhile. Even with his regenerative ability. It trembled as blood dripped off of it and he had no medi-gel to apply. Ashley looked at it with a wince, "Good god Wrex, are you going to be okay?!"

A rough laugh came from the krogan. "Yeah. I've had worse than this before."

Nodding, Ashley looked back at the dead varren and sighed with relive, "We did it."

"Yeah." Glancing over at Ashley with a semi-smile, "One more to go."

"He's going to be the worst."

Wrex looked back at the dead carcass of the varren. "Not with its friend dead." Its white belly pumped full of slugs. Its face mangled from more lead from Ashley's handgun. Blood still pooling around it as the air was escaping. A low dying rattle hissing from its dead body. It was ghastly but Ashley rather enjoyed the wheezing sound from its corpse.

Struggling to get up, Ashley stood telling Wrex, "Come on. I think we've done enough for awhile."

Wrex stomped up with pride and a proud smile. He looked back at the dead varren once again, telling both himself and Ashley, "Biggest varren I ever killed!"

Smiling with him, Ashley knocked on his chest plate, "That we've ever killed, big guy. Get it right."

"I wasn't trying to kiss it first." Wrex said comically, following Ashley from the cave.

Rolling her eyes with a smile, exiting back onto the red dusted landscape, Ashley took in a big inhale saying, "I think I won't contact the workers for a few weeks. They've earned some time off."

Wrex came out asking her, "What are you going to do with all that time to yourself?"

Looking at her krogan partner she said, "Relax."

"You're going to get bored."

"Nah. I want the time off. A whole planet to myself? I can think of some fun things to do."

A gruff chuckle came from Wrex, "Not me. I'm going back to Tuchanga. Definitely let Shepard know about all this."

As they both walked back to camp, Ashley laughed, "Yeah, he'll be so pissed he missed all the fun." Wishing he was here.

Getting back, Ashley went to her small quarters and sat down inside. Wrex followed her in having a difficult time finding a wide enough place to have a seat. Ashley frowned a bit, "I don't have any Ryncol to celebrate."

Holding up his hand, Wrex said gently, "That's okay Williams. Seeing you in that blood rage back there in that cave was more than enough for me."

"Oh that." Ash said slightly blushing, "I just wanted to make sure it was dead. That's all."

Smiling, Wrex said, "Sure."

Looking down with a shy smile, Ashley stayed silent for a minute until raising her head, "Wrex, you're usually busy on Tuchanga with all sorts of clan leader stuff and trying to uplift the krogan and what not."

"Yeah so?" Wrex said wondering where his friend was going with this.

"Why come here? I'm sure I'm not the only one who needed help out of the original crew. Why me?"

Grunting he stood up and turned his back on Ashley. He was thinking of what to say. Usually just playing off a question like that with some sarcasm or rudeness. Not this time. "That's not a simple answer, gunnery chief."

A slight grin came over her, "You haven't called me that in a long time, big guy. Why the nostalgic title?"

Turning to face her, he decided to ask a question of his own, "Back on Virmire, you didn't blow my head off. I saw you moving behind me. Why?"

Shocked and a bit knocked back by the question, Ashley hadn't thought of that in years, "Sheesh Wrex, that was a lifetime ago! What brings that up?"

"Well I -" He didn't finish though hearing a mournful bellow from a varren. The both of them breathed a sigh of relief at hearing the sad howl from the remaining animal. Looking outside, Wrex said, "There's a tent close by that one of the workers was using. I'll use it to sleep tonight. Tomorrow we hunt down that last son of a bitch! It won't be a great fight like last time. I wouldn't be surprised if he walk up and whines for us to pull the trigger."

With a sneer on her face, Ash said hearing the howling loud and clear, "If that's the case, I'll be more than happy to put a few rounds in his head.."

Smirking, Wrex said, "I'm sure you will." Walking for the door of Ash's small cabin.

She wasn't going to let him leave without answering, "Wrex, I still want to know."

Not turning to face her, Wrex politely said, "Because I like you a lot Ashley. Maybe more than I should."

The picture started to become clearer to Ashley now. Not that she liked it. In fact it gave her a chill. Still, she listened as he continued.

"You showed me that a girl of your species could be just as lethal and deadly as one from mine and that - attracted me to you."

"Wrex, are you saying what I think you're saying?!"

Turning to look at her, "What I'm saying would be said better with some Ryncol. What I'm saying is that you are more than a good friend to me Williams. But I would never do anything unless it - you felt the same. I know your feelings on aliens so…"

"Wrex, if you were human maybe I could -" Stopping herself there before saying anything that could be taken the wrong way.

"Don't." Still looking at her, Wrex then said, "I'm there for you Williams no matter what. You and Shepard both taught me what you humans are truly capable of. You both inspired me."

Blushing again, Ashley said, "You know Wrex, I'll always be there to give you a hug. As many as you need." She got up and hugged him and he hugged her back. Wrex left with a content smile.

Night had fallen and he walked into a tent and laid on the cot. It smelled of sweat and dirt. A smell Wrex could live with. Even though he was all alone he was happy with his life at the moment. For the first time in a long time, both Ashley and Wrex fell asleep with hardly a care in the world. They fell asleep peacefully.


	6. Sort It Out: 4

A glorious dawn arose. The two suns beating down heat but it was all destroyed by the cool air that ran over Ashley's skin. Her armor nowhere in sight as she smiled and enjoyed the warmth made drastically better by the cool breeze. There was heavy moisture in it too which was odd for the day but she didn't care. Just a t-shirt and a pair of jeans was all she needed today.

The workers had come back and were hard at work on the bridge. Hammering and tirelessly creating the beautiful structure. It was enough to make her smile wide as a breeze blew calming her more.

Looking up she saw a shuttle hovering down with the Special Tactics & Reconnaissance symbol. Slowly descending down onto the ground. The red dust seemed to move out of the way for it as it came to a rest. Ashley walked up to it and smiled happily as Shepard exited. He waved to her. With a wide, wonderful smile, Ashley waved back having a big, angelic smile on her face.

Then, something caught her eye. The big black varren. It came from a patch of tall grass and approached Shepard slowly. It proceeded with a slight snapping of its jaws and it tongue licking it lips, awaiting the chomp and blast of blood in its maw.

Beginning to run at Shepard, Ashley reached out for the commander as he waved back unaware of the danger. She ran as fast as she could but it felt like her feet were stuck in quicksand. Not being able to move any faster she yelled at him, "Go back! Shepard!"

The varren jumped and tackled Shepard to the ground from behind and began to feast into his armor ripping his head from his neck and gnawing out the flesh and meat from the inside. Its eyes locked on Ashley the whole time it ate.

Screaming with wild fear and shock, Ashley ran with her arms still outstretched, "No! God no!" Screaming to the sky like her heart had been ripped from her chest.

* * *

Snapping awake on her bed she clutched at her chest and fell out of her small bed with a yowl. Sitting on the floor grasping at her chest plate with her heart pounding at her like a jackhammer. She breathed to calm it wanting it to slow. Standing up with her hand to her chest, clawing at it, she looked around convincing herself it was just a nightmare. Only a nightmare. Her mind tearing itself apart being around so much death and blood.

Staggering outside she looked at the tent Wrex had bunked in and groggily looked at it. Something was wrong. It seemed a bit lopsided. Walking towards it, struggling to get her senses, she saw the side flap blowing in the early morning breeze. It wasn't suppose to be doing that. Folding open the front tent flap she saw the cot covered in blood. "Oh no! Wrex?!" She asked aloud.

Snapping her sights to the side flap blowing the breeze, a bloody trail leading away. Taking up her rifle she ran following it. Her feet not stuck in dreamscape now. She felt light and fast fueled with fear and determination. Charging through half the camp she saw a piece of maroon armor on the wayside with a splash of blood next to it. Running right past it she charged right out through the walls jumping over the top following the blood trail.

Kicking up red sand as she ran, tracking the trail, her mind was a machine. Nothing else mattered at that point. Not hurting herself, not dying, not running into the last varren, just Wrex. Her friend was hurt. That was all she could think about was that he was hurt. That's all she wanted to think about. He was just hurt.

Lots of blood. The trail getting more slick with fresh blood as she sprinted across the wilds of the planet. He was just hurt. Another piece of maroon armor discarded with hunks of krogan flesh in it. He was tough, he could take it.

Passing by a big, serrated knife with a different color off blood, Wrex had gotten it one good time with the blade. 'He killed it but he was badly hurt.' Was what Ashley thought. He was just badly hurt.

Coming to a large patch of tall grass where the trail ended, Ashley aimed her rifle in the tall grass and slowly lowered it on seeing what was in it. Wrex. What was left of him. He had been so mutilated during the night that his body was unrecognizable. She backed away sitting on the ground in utter disbelieve. She had awoken from one nightmare to another. Dropping her rifle she saw his shotgun. She whimpered pulling it slowly from the remains drenched in the tough krogan's blood. Looking at it she cried out realizing what had happened. He had tried to fight back. There were signs all along the way of his struggle and the valiant effort he had put up to save his life.

Standing up with tears streaming down her face she held his shotgun looking at the chunks and blood of her friend. It was just a mess of meat with bits of his armor torn everywhere. There was nothing left of the once proud, mighty, honorable krogan. All he was now was just a wasted mess in some tall grass on an unnamed world.

Ashley was a flood of emotions. Coddling the shotgun to her chest she whimpered lost in her own confusion. Walking around the big patch of tall grass there was not an inch of red grass blade not covered in Wrex's blood and anatomy.

Putting the blood stained shotgun on the small of her back she slowly picked up her rifle with one hand. Trying to save her tears she fired into the ground heating up the sink. When the Avenger overheated, she ejected the heat sink right into the tall grass. It landed in a semi-wet spot and caught the grass a blaze. The flames ignited and soon the whole patch was burning along with Wrex's remains. The flames rising high as the grass and chopped meat burned well into the evening. Ashley stood close to the fire having saluted it nearly ten times. She had talked to them and even thrown in some more grass to keep the fire going. Telling Wrex all the things she had wished she had when he was alive. How good of a friend he was and how that he was what she needed. Not a lover but just a good friend. How he was there for her. That even though she had doubted him back on Virmire, she didn't doubt his intentions now. She was going to miss him terribly.

Then, she heard the roar. The roar of the last varren. She snapped her head in the direction she heard it and stared. Her eyes not filled with fear of what she was hearing anymore. She was no longer an Alliance or a Spectre. She wasn't even human anymore. Traveling far beyond the bounds of mortality. Everything melting around her. Her eyes ushering what the varrens' had all along. Death. She was going to kill the varren. For revenge, for honor, for justice, for Wrex, for her. They had taken everything and now she was going to do the same. It was just her and it. It was time for both of them to finally sort it out.

Night had fallen as she held her rifle. She was standing on top of the unfinished bridge. A face of stone as she scanned the landscape. Wrex's pyre flames starting to die down. The night air was hot and muggy. She breathed it in smelling the staleness in the air. Walking out she fired in the air with her Avenger. Ejecting a thermal clip she heard the roar of the varren. She fired again with one hand in the air ejecting another. Another roar from the varren. It was getting closer. Firing she ejected the last thermal clip and threw down her Avenger, grabbing Wrex's blood stained shotgun and cocking it.

Scanning the flatland she looked for the beast. Nowhere. Confused by this she held her ground not letting her confusion get the better of her. It was around, somewhere. She knew it, she felt it.

Blasting through underneath came the blood red, pitch black varren. Its claws slashing upwards towards Ashley as she fell back avoiding them. She fired the shotgun at nothing and kept it aimed. Rolling back up to her feet she stood with the shotgun. Taking a few steps back she aimed down at the metal between her feet. Two shots blasted from the shotgun not hitting anything.

Back-peddling she aimed her shotgun low. The varren raced by underneath and another two shots from the shotgun. Cocking the weapon quickly she menacingly got ready but by then it was too late. The varren blasted through the steel of the bridge rising from it like a demon out of the ground. Firing, the blast grazing the varren as it clawed at her, knocking the gun from her hands, clawing open one of her gauntlets. Useless she dropped the broken armor to the ground running from the beast.

It chased her down off the bridge as she ran underneath pulling her handgun. The varren tracked her under the bridge as she swung out heading back up top for some kind of high ground. It roared out racing up after her and pounced. Ashley swung out of the way, ducking behind it. Aiming for the back she put five slugs in its spine. It turned quickly with a primordial roar at her as she ejected the thermal clip quickly jeering the creature down.

Its eyes invoking that fear in her again but she just stared right back. She had that own in her eyes. The two of them with the same thoughts on their minds.

Aiming for its face she fired getting knocked down with the handgun flying out of her hands. The two of them on a small incline as Ashley saw she had shot out one of its eyes. It was on the ground chuffing painfully and angrily at her. Gouts of dust exploding from the ground near its nostrils as it crawled towards her. Ashley rolled grabbing her gun as the beast steadily approached. Missing an eye it opened its mouth and bit down into Ashley's leg. It teeth sank deep into her armor and flesh. Screaming with tremendous pain she tried to escape firing wildly at it. Several shots hit its head but it was still crushing her leg. Dropping her gun in extreme pain she kicked the varren in the face. The boot heel gouging into the destroyed eye socket. Finally getting it off of her, she crawled up the incline, with her gun sliding down out of reach.

One arm over the other as the monster was right behind her. Clawing into the dirt, Ashley pulled herself back up on the bridge with the beast in pursuit. It snapped and chomped at her feet as her leg left a thick, bloody trail behind her. Not looking back, not stopping, Ashley continued to crawl with her leg feeling like it would come off as she kept going wanting to grab the shotgun she dropped earlier.

The animal right behind her wanting a final piece of her. To kill her and drink her blood gluttonously.

Screaming with strain and pain, Ashley kept going finally grabbing the shotgun. She turned around as the beast climbed over her and bit down on her naked arm crushing the bone, breaking the arm, now trying to rip it from the socket. Blood poured from the entire arm flowing into the creature's maw as Ashley screamed with one final yell, pushing the shotgun with one hand into the forehead of the monster pulling the trigger.

The varren's skull blasted open like a watermelon sending all sorts of pieces in multitudes of directions. Collapsing on Ashley, the body blanketed her in its blood. She gasped trying not to drown in the waterfall of liquid rolling the heavy creature off of her. She tried to stand hobbling over to a cable supporting her weight. She looked down at the dead beast with a roar. Her body soaked in blood of hers and its. Her arm nearly gone and her one leg useless. Roaring at the corpse like a wild woman she stood there for five minutes screaming with every single feeling she had ever felt. With every bit of energy she had left.

Looking at her arm she hobbled over to Wrex's fire. It was almost out. She stumbled and fell over landing next to the dying flames. She didn't have time for finesse and threw her arm in the fire cauterizing it. Roaring to the sky with more pain than ever before she rolled out of the fire and before she passed out from pain, she applied some medi-gel to herself breathing with exhaustion. She felt cold as she looked up at the stars. In her mind she sent out a little prayer. She didn't care if she died but she hoped that the varren stayed dead. This last fight she hoped she had won. She had lost too many times. She couldn't fight anymore. She couldn't lose anymore. No more.

The stars were peaceful as she closed her eyes and slept wanting to never wake up again. When she did though she saw three Alliance soldiers over her and felt her body lift. The sky was blue and the clouds were hovering over her. She watched a shuttle ceiling enter her vision and heard a door close. They were probably taking her to a hospital somewhere.

* * *

_9 weeks later_

Standing on a finished bridge, Ashley never saw either varren corpse again. The Alliance told her that they had been burned. She knew better. They had taken them for research. Ash couldn't shake the feeling though. Every now again she thought she still heard the roars of the varren. Even though it was just the local wild ones who sprinted across the flatlands. She wanted to believe they were dead. Logic suggested they were dead. Every mortal rule said they were dead. Still feeling them though a chill went up Ashley's spine. That same one she felt sitting in that box trap All that time ago. It felt like several lifetimes had flown by and that she had aged just as much. The box-trap now a semi-tourist trap.

What she was really there for was to say goodbye to her friend. Many had come to say goodbye and she was glad that nearly the entire, original Normandy crew had shown up. Even a few of the newcomers. Not to mention nearly five-hundred krogan and Eva. Turning to leave she looked at the golden nameplate of the bridge. Kissing it she said, "Thank you for being there my friend when no one else was."

On the nameplate was written:

_Urdnot Wrex Memorial Bridge_


End file.
